4 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
The growing of forests for timber is often called tim- 
ber-culture. This term has been extensively used in 
this country, especially in connection with the timber- 
culture acts of Congress, which granted land to the 
prairie settler on condition that he plant a specified 
portion of his tract in trees. These acts are no longer 
in force, but the term timber-culture is a good one 
for that part of silviculture in which timber produe- 
tion is the principal object. 
The terms timber and lumber are used in a pecul- 
iar way in this country. Lumber usually means sawn 
or hewn stuff in merchantable form and of the smaller 
dimensions. The term timber is applied to the for- 
est in the sense of standing timber, and to hewn or 
sawn stuff of the larger sizes, such as the timbers of 
a barn or of a ship. This use of the term lumber is 
peculiar to America. In Europe it refers to disused 
or discarded goods of any kind, and aceording to some 
authorities, is a modification of the word “ Lombard,” 
the Lombards having been in early times famous 
pawnbrokers. In England the words timber and 
wood goods are common. It is said that the American 
use of the word lumber originated in Boston, which 
was once a great lumber-port, because the lumber- 
merchants ‘‘ lumbered ” the wharves and streets of 
that city with their product. 
Another common Americanism which is loosely 
