Personnel. 57 



the direction of an established huntsman, who taught 

 them what he knew about the rules of the chase, 

 while by questioning woodchoppers, colliers, etc., 

 and by their own observation the knowledge of wood" 

 craft was acquired. 



At the head of affairs stood the so-called cameralists 

 or chamber officials, men who had prepared them- 

 selves by the study of philosophy, law, diplomacy 

 and political economy for the positions of directors 

 of finance and State administration. Rather ignorant 

 of natural science, and without practical forestry 

 knowledge, their efforts were not always well directed. 

 They deserve credit, however, for having collected 

 into encyclopaedic volumes the empiric knowledge of 

 the practitioners or Holzgerechten, and for having 

 elaborated it more or less successfully. In this work 

 they were joined by some of the professors of cameralia 

 and law at the universities. 



By the middle of the 18th century the hunters had 

 so far grown in knowledge and education as to be able 

 to produce their knowledge in books of their own. 

 Quite a literature developed full of acrimonious war- 

 fare of opinions, as is the rule where empiricism rules 

 supreme. 



Notable progress, however, came only when hunt- 

 ing was placed in the background and more or less 

 divorced from forest work. 



* 



6. Development of Silviculture. 



In addition to the restrictive measures and attempts 

 at mere conservative lumbering without much thought 

 of reproduction, there were as early as the 16th 



