168 



Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1913 



planting, and receive the profits from the 

 same as soon as the thinning process began. 

 In any event in order to secure continuity 

 and uniformity the government would prob- 

 ably regulate the general direction of the 

 management and cutting of the timber. 



PROF. RECKNAGEL'S BOOK. 



A book which has merited notice long ere 

 now but of which a review has been delayed 

 is ^The Theory and Practice of Working Plans' 

 by Professor A. B. Recknagel, of the Forestry 

 Faculty of Cornell University — New York, 

 John Wiley & Sons; Montreal, Renouf Pub- 

 lishing Co., $2 net. 



The author, who is a graduate of Yale 

 Forest School, has been in important positions 

 in the U. S. Forest Service and has lately 

 spent a year in Germany, studying at first 

 hand the systems of forest organization in 

 that country, is by his experience specially 

 fitted to deal with the complicated subject. 



The presentation of the theme is logical 

 and clear. Following his title faithfully, the 

 author takes up first the theory of manage- 

 ment under 'Foundations of Working Plans,' 

 and follows it with 'Practice of Working 

 Plans'. In Part I, after discussing the ideal 

 of the forester, the 'Normal Forest', Professor 

 Recknagel describes methods of forest 

 reconnaissance which would lead to the 

 first essential in any proper forest manage- 

 ment, viz., that the manager should know 

 accurately what he has within the boundaries 

 of his tract. In this connection some very 

 interesting tables and plots are shown. 



Having arrived at a trustworthy estimate 

 of his forest, the forester's next step is to 

 determine the sytem under which he will 

 manage it. The next portion of the treatise 

 is therefore given to a consideration of the 

 three conditions governing all systems of 

 management, viz., the unit of organization, 

 the silvicultural method of management, 

 and the final object of management. 



The statement of the principles of the 

 various methods (some twenty in all) which 

 have been worked out in Europe is most 

 lucid, and will be a delight to the American 

 student of forestry, to whom, on account of 

 the difficulties of forei^ texts, many of the 

 leading points of contmental practice have 

 been denied. 



Realizing that American forests are in 

 very poor condition for management to-day 

 Profe^or Recknagel next speaks of the regu- 

 lation of yield in special cases. He then 

 presents the working plan document, which 

 contains the various plans which will have 

 to be followed in the course of the regulation, 

 and whose keynotes, says the author, are sim- 

 plicity and brevity, and may embody merely 

 the silvicultural management, or may cover 

 all the activities in a forest. In the 'Outline 

 of American Practice' which he suggests, 



the author follows this latter plan, and 

 embodies all the uses to which the forest may 

 be put in addition to lumber and by-products. 



From his wealth of reading and European 

 experience Professor Recknagel is able to 

 present in the latter portion of the book, 

 •The Practice of Working Plans' a most 

 complete synopsis of the state of manage- 

 ment plans in Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, 

 Wurttemburg, France and Austria. These 

 pages bring home to the reader the practical 

 advantages and disadvantages of the plans 

 outb'ned in the theoretical discussions. 



Passing to American conditions the author 

 describes the work of the United States 

 Forest Service in the development of the 

 basis of working plans. The reproduction 

 in the book of many of the forms used in 

 reconnaissance gives the reader a clear 

 conception of the actual operations of today. 



All in all, the book should prove of great 

 value to the student and practising forester 

 for whom Professor Recknagel says he has 

 written. In Itself through the appreciation 

 which will doubtless be accorded it by Ameri- 

 can foresters it should do much to dissipate 

 the fear expressed by the author in the pre- 

 face that the application of the most advanced 

 methods of management 'is of the far distant 

 future, if ever.' 



R. L. C. 



C. p. R. FORESTRY WORK. 



Mr. A. H. D. Ross, M. A., M. F., Lecturer 

 in Forestery in the University of Toronto, 

 and Consulting Forester for the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway, reports a most interesting 

 Summer's work. 



During the last two years the Company 

 has had reconnaissance parties at work from 

 Vancouver to Halifax, and now has on file 

 much valuable information regarding the 

 timber resources of the country tributar}' 

 to its lines which could not be obtained from 

 the provincial authorities. It is hoped that 

 the good example set by the C. P. R., under 

 the energetic leadership of Mr. R. D. Prettie, 

 Superintendent of Forestry for the Company 

 with headquarters at Calgary, will spur 

 others on to a systematic method of stock- 

 taking and a study of the best methods of 

 making provision for future supplies of ^m- 

 ber. 



In southern British Columbia, the Company 

 has twelve tie-and-timber reserves aggregating 

 over half a million acres, and during the past 

 summer had made detailed reconnaissance 

 surveys of more than half the area at a cost 

 of less than ten cents per acre. The character 

 of the work done equals the best done any- 

 where on the continent and has been highly 

 commented upon by some of the leading 

 foresters of the U. S. Forest Service,. 



