408 Forestry Quarterly 



This is perhaps the most simple, yet at the same time the most 

 explicit statement in forestry literature explaining the need for the 

 development of the science of forest ecology and why it is necessary 

 in silvicultural practice. 



Besides forest botany various other phases of biological science 

 were applied to silviciilture, namely: pathology, entomology, and 

 zoology. The very important subject of forest pathology did 

 not receive treatment until about fifty years ago, first at the hands 

 of Willkomm, and later, much more thoroughly, by Robert Hartig. 

 The former's work upon the diseases of forest trees and timber 

 appeared in 1866-7, and Hartig 's treatises upon plant and tree 

 diseases in 1874, 1882, and 1900. 



Forest zoology made slower progress than did forest botany. 

 Enormous damage by bark beetles made investigations along 

 entomological lines imperative, especially in the latter part of 

 the 18th century. The life history of these beetles was very 

 imperfectly understood. Cramer (1766) was the first to describe 

 Bostrychus typographus, but he asstmied, as did his precedessors, 

 that this insect attacked only diseased trees. A very excellent 

 book which for the first time correctly explained the biology of this 

 insect and also gives numerous accounts of insect damage in the 

 Harz Mountains was by a Doctor of Medicine, Gmelin. Gleditsch, 

 and later Burgsdorf, worked the field of forest entomology more 

 systematically, but still left much to be desired. Good works were 

 also written by Borkhausen (1780-94) and Bechstein (1818), but 

 the founders of scientific forest zoology were Ratzeburg (1801) and 

 T. Hartig. To these must later be added Eichhoff , Altum, Judeich, 

 and Nitzsche. 



It is impossible to speak of a successful and scientific application 

 of chemistry and geonomy (Bodenkunde) to silvicultural manage- 

 ment untU the pioneer work of Liebig, the great German chemist, 

 was given to the world. His investigations, beginning about 1835, 

 revolutionized both organic and inorganic chemistry. The older 

 works of Krutzsch, Behlen and Hundeshagen are therefore of no 

 particular value. Also the works of G. Heyer and Grebe are to a 

 large extent obsolete. It was not until Ebermayer (1873) , Schroder, 

 Lorenz (1878), R. Weber (1874), Wollny and Ramann (1893) 

 worked in this field that exact investigations were begun. The 

 best work on forest soils is attributed to Ramann, who in 1893 

 published the first edition of his Forstliche Bodenkunde und Standorts- 



