Situation of Technical Forester 63 



and where it is still necessary, as in that of the forest, to fight 

 against prejudice and stupidity. Everyone thinks himself fit to 

 judge and to criticize the forester's work. It is admitted with- 

 out contradiction that to construct a railway, for example, it is 

 necessary to have recourse to an engineer ; that a chemist is in- 

 dispensable in directing the manufacture of chemical products. 

 It would be equitable also to submit to the forester's care the 

 management of the forests of which they have charge, since this 

 is their business. It can be conceived that a friend of nature, if 

 he is also a good observer, can acquire an almost complete ac- 

 quaintance with the general treatment of the forest, but in a 

 given case he will not know how to apply this knowledge in 

 operations which the circumstances require. For that, it is neces- 

 sary to know how to take account of many factors often diffi- 

 cult to determine, which the specialist alone is able to do. 



It is not a very long time ago that many of the mountaineers 

 refused to admit that a forest could be created by means of 

 plantations, and nevertheless these are people to whom the forests 

 are very familiar. Others go on stating with assurance that to 

 become a fine tree the spruce should be eaten by the rabbits each 

 years during twenty, thirty and forty years and even more. 

 Moreover, in the Neuchatel district of the Jura for example, 

 the opinion has prevailed for a long time that the black woods 

 (coniferous trees) and the white woods (broad-leaved trees) 

 would not be able to succeed in mixture ; because these trees are 

 enemies excluding one another. In the En Haut country there 

 exists a similar prejudice according to which the beech (one of 

 our most valuable species and that which has the most marked 

 fertilizing power) is to be considered an objectionable intruder 

 in a stand of coniferous trees. Again, it is well known that 

 clear cutting in the mountain forests has destroyed the woods of 

 various mountain regions. In spite of this, in spite of the teach- 

 ings of the past, this method of clear cutting which has the sole 

 merit of being the most simple, would certainly be the oftenest 

 applied if the forester were not there to oppose it, so difficult 

 is it to uproot old habits, old customs, even the worst; and too 

 often when it is a question of the public forests individual self- 

 ishness prevails over the interest of the community. 



It must be recognized, however, that during the last decades 

 public opinion has made great progress in this respect. Public 



