4 INTRODUCTION. 



coppice woods with 12-years rotation. Forest pasture, and 

 pannage, or the eating of mast by pigs, have greatly fallen 

 off in importance of late years, but in earlier times these 

 forest usages vied in importance with that of hunting. 



The great damage done to forests by insects was first noted 

 in Germany in 1780, and between that date and 1830 several 

 works on Forest Entomology appeared. That by Katzeburg 

 was published in 1837, and another by Altum in 1872. 

 Ratzeburg's book was revised and enlarged by Judeich and 

 Nitche in 1885 and in 1895. 



The engineer Bre"montier undertook the fixing of the shifting 

 sands on the west coast of France in 1800, on lines already 

 proposed by Baron de Charlevoix Villers in 1786. A French 

 law on that subject was passed in 1810. Oberforster von Kropf 

 did a similar service for Germany at about the same time. 



The great damage done in 1856, by floods in the Rhone 

 Valley, induced the French to pass in 1860 a law for 

 " reboisement des montagnes." 



Forest fires were formerly of frequent occurrence in France 

 and Germany, but are now 7 regarded as national calamities, 

 and rarely allowed to extend over considerable areas. A special 

 law against forest fires in Dauphiny was passed in 1872, and 

 revised in 1893. They are still prevalent on a large scale in 

 Russia and Greece, and in North America. In British India, 

 for the last 30 years, a steadily increasing success has been 

 attained by the Government in its efforts to reduce the area 

 of State forests burned annually, and measures for protecting 

 36,651 square miles of State forest from fire were taken in 1903. 



The preservation of birds useful in forestry and agriculture 

 has been furthered by the naturalists of different European 

 countries and by the enactment of special laws. At the same 

 time, the British gamekeeper by indiscriminately destroying 

 bird s-of -prey and the smaller carnivora, has allowed rabbits 

 and wood-pigeons to increase so enormously, as to become a 

 veritable scourge to forestry and agriculture, to say nothing of 

 even greater danger from mice and voles. 



Lastly, the researches of Willkomin in 1866, and of Robert 

 Hartig in 1874, have brought to light the causes of many 

 diseases of forest trees which are due to fungi. 



