PREFACE 
In the following pages the author has endeavored 
to include those parts of the science and art of for- 
estry which are of interest and importance to the 
general reader and beginner. It has been his en- 
deavor also to make this book as practical as possible, 
so that the owner of a large tract of woodland, and 
the farmer with his wood-lot, or the owner of a coun- 
try place, or those interested in the various indus- 
tries connected with forests and forest products, may 
glean hints of value. The greatest difficulty has been 
in deciding what to exclude rather than include. It 
is by no means easy to select from the great mass 
of technical and general literature on this subject 
those points which are of value and interest to the 
general reader, to the owners of woodland, and be- 
ginners in general. 
Beginning with Cotta, the father of forestry, nu- 
merous writers have expressed many of these facts be- 
fore, but the selection and arrangement of the contents 
