TOO Forestry Quarterly. 



to retain the forest in its natural conditions ; this is obtained by 

 many aged stands and by a selection method of cutting. The 

 economic principle demands the greatest possible revenue from 

 the forest. This end is obtained by even-aged stands resulting 

 from clear cutting systems. The great trouble of the prevailing 

 silvicultural practice of Europe is that it is guided almost entirely 

 by the economic principle ; it seeks to increase the revenue from 

 the forest and entirely neglects the natural principle which pre- 

 serves the productive powers of the forest. Wagner places silvi- 

 culture in the front and relegates the requirements of forest regu- 

 lation to the second place. Such defense of the silvicultural prac- 

 tice by Wagner sounds especially interesting as he is a Professor 

 of Forest Regulation at the University of Tiibingen and is more 

 concerned with the economic questions of forestry than with silvi- 

 cultural ones. Accordingly, Wagner devotes practically all of his 

 book to silviculture, and forest organization and regulation are 

 discussed only in the last few chapters. In pointing out the de- 

 fects of artificial reproduction he dwells especially on the spruce 

 plantations and calls them an insult to nature. Horizontal spread- 

 ing of the roots inherent to spruce under natural conditions, in 

 artificial plantations become vertical, which in his opinion, is the 

 source of many evils in the further development of the tree. 

 Natural reproduction alone is the nature's way and has many ad- 

 vantages, as it produces the best seed and tends to develop climatic 

 races most suitable to each site. 



The present German forest management with its prevalent 

 artificial reproduction the author considers not intensive, in spite 

 of the great application of labor and capital. The virgin forests 

 of Russia, Sweden, America, and Austria furnishes to the world 

 market products, the cost of production of which includes only 

 die expense involved in their harvesting and transportation. 

 Germany which receives part of its timber supply from abroad, 

 must compete with the products of the world and sell the timber 

 from its own forests at a price lower than their cost of production. 

 For this reason Wagner thinks German forest management must 

 increase its intensiveness at the expense of natural factors ; must 

 resort to the free forces of nature as productive factors and elimi- 

 nate the application of labor as much as possible. Only means of 

 transportation, in his opinion, deserve expenditures of large 



