INTRODUCTION 



The first catalogue of books on forestry in the department library 

 was issued in 1898 as library bulletin No. 24. The books listed in 

 that bulletin were entered alphabetically by authors' names and 

 indexed by subjects. Since that time, the forest literature in this 

 country has enormously increased. The interest in forestry has been 

 greatly intensified and, therefore, the demand for books on forestry 

 has become greater and more specific. There have been so many 

 requests for a new catalogue,' which will include all the books on 

 forestry in the department to date, that the present bulletin seems 

 to be almost a necessity. 



In this new bulletin the books have been classified by subjects, 

 and arranged, not alphabetically, but in the order of the logical 

 sequence of the different branches of the science of forestry, an 

 arrangement especially adapted to the use of persons who wish to 

 become acquainted with the entire field covered by the subject. 



The profession of forestry is still in its infancy, and forestry is 

 practically a new science in this country. In order, therefore, to 

 make this catalogue of the greatest use to forest students, the persons 

 who will probably use it the most at present, the science of forestry 

 has been divided into twenty large groups, which in turn have been 

 subdivided into smaller groups. These large subdivisions are 

 arranged as far as possible according to the principle of serial depend- 

 ence, a knowledge of each one being necessary before the succeeding 

 ones can be comprehended. Thus, the subdivisions which deal with 

 general topics are placed first, and further on those which deal with 

 specific problems, and which can not be well understood unless there 

 is already a knowledge of the more general subjects. Forest botany 

 and silvics, for -example, are placed before forest mensuration and 

 valuation; the latter before silviculture and forest management ; and 

 so on. 



This catalogue, therefore, is not simply a list of books contained 

 in the library of the Department of Agriculture, but provides also a 

 complete course of reading in forestry. For instance, it would be a 

 very simple matter, by marking different books under each head, to 

 furnish any person wishing to familiarize himself with forestry as a 

 whole, or with any definite branch of forestry, with a list of books 

 which he ought to read. Aside from the educational value of this 



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