INTRODUCTION 



IT is curious that the term " forest," the general meaning of 

 which everyone understands, is difficult or impossible of 

 definition. At one time the forest signified the hunting 

 grounds of the sovereign. At another it was explained as 

 an area on which were found trees and shrubs growing wild. 

 The former description is no longer satisfactory, and the 

 latter makes no allowance for cultivated forest, nor, indeed, 

 for the "deer forest," which may be entirely destitute of 

 trees. 



Game coverts are one type of forest, protection forests 

 for preserving the soil quite another. The park, or pleasure 

 ground, is different again ; and the primeval forest may be 

 distinct from any. Further than this, one may have tree- 

 growing land merging so gradually into heath or moor, or 

 bearing so poor a timber crop, that opinions may differ as to 

 where forest ends and field begins. 



For our present purpose the forest may be defined as an 

 area wholly or partially covered with trees, the principal 

 object in growing the trees being the production of timber. 

 From the foregoing remarks it is obvious, however, that such 

 a definition is far from being universally applicable. 



A forest which develops under the regenerating control of 

 nature, without man's interference, is termed "natural," 

 " virgin," or " primeval " forest. Such forests have practi- 

 cally disappeared from Western and Southern Europe, and 

 towards the east they are in many parts rapidly diminishing. 

 Eastern Europe Russia particularly, but also Sweden and 

 the southern portion of Norway still possesses very con- 

 siderable tracts of undisturbed natural forest. 



