Some of the chapters have been submitted for 

 criticism and corrections to correspondents in the 

 various countries to which they refer. For the kindly 

 assistance of these friends thanks is due from the 

 author. 



Toronto, October, 1911. B. E. Fernow. 



PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 



This publication is the result of a series of 25 lec- 

 tures which the writer was invited to deliver before 

 the students of forestry in Yale University as a part 

 of their regular course of instruction during the 

 session of 1904. 



Circumstances made it desirable, in the absence of 

 any existing textbooks on the subject, to print at once, 

 for the sake of ready reference, the substance of the 

 lectures while they were being delivered. 



This statement of the manner in which the book 

 came into existence will explain and, it is hoped, 

 excuse the crudities of style, which has been also 

 hampered by the necessity of condensation. 



The main object was to bring together the informa- 

 tion, now scattered and mostly inaccessible to English 

 or American readers: the style has been sacrificed to 

 brevity; it is a book of expanded lecture notes. 



In the nature of the case the book does not lay claim 

 to any originality except in the manner of presenta- 

 tion, being merely a compilation of facts gathered 



