6 . History of Forests and Forestry. 



personal property, the forest appears an undesirable 

 encumbrance of the soil, and the attitude of the 

 settler is of necessity inimical to the forest: the need 

 for farm and pasture leads to forest destruction. 



The next stage is that of restriction in forest use 

 and protection against cattle and fire, the stage of 

 conservative lumbering. Then come positive efforts 

 to secure re-growth by fostering natural regeneration 

 or by artificial planting: the practice of silviculture 

 begins. Finally a management for continuity 

 organizing existing forest areas for sustained yield 

 forest economy is introduced. 



That the time and progress of these stages of de- 

 velopment and the methods of their inauguration 

 vary in different parts of the world is readily under- 

 stood from the intimate relation which, as has been 

 pointed out, this economic subject bears to all other 

 economic as well as political developments. 



At the present time we find all the European 

 nations practicing forestry, although with a very 

 varying degree of intensity. The greatest and most 

 universal development of the art is for good reasons 

 to be found in Germany and its nearest neighbors. 

 Early attention to forest conservancy was here in- 

 duced by density of population, which enforces inten- 

 sity in the use of soil, and by the comparative difficulty 

 of securing wood supplies cheaply enough from out- 

 side. On the other hand, such countries as the Medi- 

 terranean peninsulas by their advantageous situation 

 with reference to importations, with their mild climate 

 and less intensive industrial development, have felt 

 this need less. 



