212 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



initial expenditure, to curtail the working expenses as much 

 as possible, and yet at the same time obtain the maximum 

 possible return. This difference between agriculture and forestry 

 is more than a question of degree, it compels a change of policy, 

 a new departure in method, it demands a special technique 

 embodied in the art of silviculture. 



The claim that the science of forestry has attained its present 

 position by a process of trial and error is not entirely borne out 

 by facts. A little reflection will convince one that the methods 

 of silviculture, with slight modifications, have been gleaned from 

 nature's laboratory, where for centuries the provisions of her 

 laws have been adhered to and have produced forests of 

 unrivalled splendour, whose products fill our markets to-day. 

 It is said we cannot compete with the foreigner as regards 

 timber supplies, either in quantity or quality. We are in the 

 majority of cases not competing directly with the foreigner, 

 we are offering the products of an artificial system in competition 

 with the products of woods of which nature herself has had 

 charge. If we then are to be successful we must study nature's 

 laws, understand her methods, discover how the tree in the 

 old Greek phrase "lives well" under the given conditions of the 

 home; "and having discovered to comply as well as to 

 command : to conquer nature by observance of her laws." 



And first with regard to the individual tree. The natural 

 distribution of any species is limited by well defined factors 

 of the environment, but within the range of its occurrence the 

 varying complex of factors calls forth unequal responses from 

 the tree at the limit of its range and near the centre of 

 its natural area. In the latter, where the complex of factors, 

 soil, atmospheric and biological, meets with the tree's demands 

 for optimum development, there we may expect not only 

 maximum annual increment, but maximum vitality to ward off 

 or keep in check sundry and divers enemies. Having discovered 

 an area where optimum development is attained our next 

 procedure is to analyse the complex which achieves this 

 object, find out the factors, qualitative and quantitative, chiefly 

 responsible for the result, and from the forester's point of view 

 associate such a complex with the species of tree concerned. Nor 

 must we stop there. Close observation of the species of plants 

 naturally associated with the given tree under its optimum 

 conditions will be of very practical assistance. With each 



