THE SUBDIVISION OF FORESTS 

 By J. S. I1.LICK 



One of the first requirements of the orderly management of the 

 soil, whether it be in agriculture, horticulture, gardening, or 

 forestry, is the division of the aggregate area into convenient and 

 practical parts. Agriculture, gardening and horticulture are the 

 older members of the above group of businesses, while forestry — 

 at present in its formative period of development in America — is 

 the youngest. The older members have already blazed and, to 

 a degree, cleared a route of development which forestry, in part 

 at least, will follow. Just as farms are divided into fields and 

 patches, orchards into blocks, gardens into beds, so forests should 

 be divided into working units. 



The fundamental economic principles of forestry differ very 

 little from those of any other business. A systematic management 

 of any business requires a careful organization of both personnel 

 and material. A careful organization of a forest property re- 

 quires a division of it into working and treatment units, without 

 which it is practically impossible to build it up and keep it in order. 

 More than a century ago Heinrich von Cotta, one of the greatest 

 and probably the most prudent of the early German foresters, 

 appreciated the significance and the great value of a good perma- 

 nent subdivision of a forest. Today, Dr. H. Martin, Professor 

 at the Tharandt Forest Academy which Cotta founded in 1811, 

 and one of the best known and most versatile forest authorities 

 in central Europe, emphasizes the value of the subdivision of a 

 forest in the following words: " The subdivision of a forest into 

 permanent managerial figures, usually known as compartments, 

 must be regarded as the most difficult and yet the most important 

 task of the field work and should precede the other preparatory 

 activities of forest working plans." 



It is important to know what advantages will be derived from 

 the subdivision of a forest. In the light of European experiences 

 and of our own understanding of the subject the fundamentals 

 which recommend an orderly subdivision of a forest may be 

 summarized as follows : 



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