vi PREFACE. 



that they might also be useful to others who desired to become 

 acquainted with forest science in Central and Western Europe. 



As I have stated elsewhere the principles of forest manage- 

 ment hold good all the world over. In endeavouring to 

 explain these principles it seemed to me right and proper 

 to be guided by the experience gained in those countries 

 which have taken the lead in forestry, namely, Germany and 

 France. In these countries systematic forest management 

 became a necessity almost a hundred years ago, so that their 

 methods are now. based upon long experience and a rich 

 crop of investigations. 



Economic forestry has not been developed in the same 

 degree in Britain, because it was of subordinate importance. 

 Of late, however, many voices have been heard urging the 

 subject upon the attention of the public and the government 

 of the country. It has more particularly been suggested 

 that the depression in agriculture, the continuous flow of 

 population into the towns, and the ever increasing number of 

 the unemployed, are matters which might raise more extended 

 forest operations into the position of an economic necessity. 

 Ten years ago I showed, and so have many others since, 

 that timber worth at least 12,000,000, which could be pro- 

 duced locally, is annually imported into this country ; also that 

 more waste land is available in these Islands than is necessary 

 to produce that timber. On the other hand it has been said 

 that the home grown timber cannot compete with the imported 

 material. This is not the place to enter into the details of 

 the question, but I desire to draw attention to two points : - 



In the first place, British timber cannot compete with the 

 imported timber because, as at present grown, it is of inferior 

 quality, being generally shorter and less clean of branches and 



