PERIODICAL LITERATURE 



SILVICULTURE, PROTECTION, AND EXTENSION 



If there were not abundant literature and to 

 Forest Type spare on forest types to be found in preceding 

 Classification volumes of the Journal, we would be inclined 

 to furnish a complete translation of A. Arnould's 

 very clear article on this subject, introduced with the curious title: 

 "The Forestry Idea in Foreign Countries." This title explains itself 

 by the statement that forest types are not recognized in France, each 

 stand being considered individually without ranging it into genus or 

 class. Further on we are informed that in Russia the question of 

 forest type classification is still under controversy, Prof. Morosow, 

 of the Petrograd Institute being the champion of the use of types. 

 This article is based upon one by a young Russian student of Morosow, 

 Melder, on the forest types of Kurland, in which he develops the 

 basis for type classification. Incidentally, we may add that in Ger- 

 many the idea of forest types is an old story (see Gayer's Waldhau, 

 chapters on Bestandsformen and Bestandsarten), but no precise and 

 complete classification has been developed. The absence of such classi- 

 fication can perhaps be explained by the lack of need for it owing to the 

 lack of great variety of conditions, such as our complicated forest 

 forms present, and by the eradication of many natural types. 



]\Ienger and Arnould attempt — it is sometimes impossible to dis- 

 tinguish to whom of the two authors the statements should be credited 

 — to find the basis for such a precise classification, which would be (1) 

 in conformity with the laws of nature; (3) detailed so that all cases 

 can be explained, hence to be based on as many different characteris- 

 tic signs, internal and external, as possible, like a botanical classifi- 

 cation ; (3) based on obvious, easily recognizable, practical characters. 

 The nature of the soil is recognized as one characteristic and the 

 most important factor in producing results ; the second is the compo- 

 sition, but this must be looked at in relation to the soil, and if the 

 composition is completely "non-concordant," i. e., unfit for the soil 

 (due to man's interference?), the nature of the latter must be con- 

 sidered as of most importance ; a third characteristic is found in the 

 living soil cover, which in limited cases allows judgment of the soil, 

 but since it is not a function of the soil alone it must be used with cir- 



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