PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 



FOREST GEOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION. 



An article by Barbey summarizes the de- 

 Forest velopment of forest practice m Switzer- 



Bvolution land. After explaining that forestry was 



in not originally homogeneous on account of 



Switzerland. Switzerland being divided into twenty-two 



federations, he shows that the birth of real 

 forestry in Switzerland was in the eigh- 

 teenth century when the first silviculturists were trained at 

 Tharandt. Under the influence of this training, an attempt was 

 made to adopt clear cutting methods, to regularize the forests and 

 simplify management, but after a half century of practice the re- 

 sults of clear cutting in the Alps and in the Jura were far from 

 satisfactory. Consequently, the selection method of felling has 

 now been almost uniformly adopted, especially through the teach- 

 ing of Professor Engler. The type of selection cutting is what 

 the writer calls a system of concentrated selection fellings with 

 a long period for regeneration either by single trees or by groups, 

 with a cutting cycle of ten years. In Canton of Vaud, for ex- 

 ample, it is interesting to learn that even in an ordinary high 

 forest if a private owner wishes to cut more than twenty cubic 

 meters of wood, he must be authorized by a representative of 

 the state. In protection forests not a single tree can be cut 

 without the approval of federal officials. By a law passed in 

 1914, except under the most unusual circumstances, clear cutting 

 in protection forests is absolutely forbidden. 



T. S. W., Jr. 



Revue des Eaux et Forets, January i, 1914, pp. Z^-2i^- 



Moussetafine presents data on the forests 

 Forests of Turkestan which are divided into three 



of characteristic types ; ( i ) mountain forests, 



Russian (2) river and valley forests', (3) plateau 



Turkestan. forests. The forests of Turkestan are de- 



scribed as having enormous importance 

 from the standpoint of soil protection, water conservation, and 



