THE FOREST OF THE ANCIENTS. 



The forest was undoubtedly the earliest home of 

 mankind, its edible products forming its principal 

 value. Its wild animals developed the hunter, the 

 chase first furnishing means of subsistence and then 

 exhilaration and pleasure. Next, it was the mast 

 and, in its openings, the pasture which gave to the 

 forest its value for the herder, and only last, with the 

 development into settled communities and more 

 highly civilized conditions of life, did the wood pro- 

 duct become its main contribution toward that 

 civilization. Finally, in the refinement of cultural 

 conditions in densely settled countries is added its 

 influence on soil, climate and water conditions. 



Although there is no written history, there is little 

 doubt that these were the phases in the appreciation 

 of woodlands in the earliest development of mankind, 

 for we find the same phases repeated in our own times 

 in all newly settled countries. 



As agriculture develops, the need for farming 

 ground overshadows the usefulness of the forest in 

 all these directions, and it is cleared away; moreover, 



Waldgeschichte des Alterthums, by August Seidensticker, 1886, 2 vols., 

 pp. 863, is a most painstaking compilation from original sources of notes regard- 

 ing the forest conditions and the knowledge of trees, forests and forestry among 

 the ancients. Contains also a full bibliography. 



Die Waldrwirthschaft der Reenter, by J. Trurig, collects the knowledge, 

 especially of arboriculture and silviculture, possessed by the Romans. 



Forstwissenschaftliche Leistungen der Altgriechen, by Dr. Chloros, in 

 Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1885, pp. 8. 



Archeologia forestale, Dell 'antica storia e giui-isprudenzia forestale in Italia, 

 by A. di Beranger, 1859. 



