Literature. 245 



foresters, but by savants or students of natural his- 

 tory, the names of Reaumur, Duhamel, Buffon and 

 Micheaux appearing with memoirs transmitted to 

 the Academy of France, the highest literary and 

 scientific body of men, on subjects relating to forestry. 

 Reaumur, in his Reflexions sur V etat des forets, in 1721, 

 recommended the conversion of coppice forests into 

 timber forests by a system of thinnings, but it is 

 evident that his words were not heard beyond the 

 Academy. Duhamel (in 1755, 1764, 1780) repeats 

 the recommendation of Reaumur in his three memoirs, 

 Semis et Plantations, Exploitation des Bois and Traite 

 de la Physique des Arbres, in which he exhibits con- 

 siderable learning, while Buffon, the great naturalist, 

 in 1739 and after, presented several memoirs on fores- 

 try subjects full of excellent advice. Varennes de 

 Fenille, another one of the Academicians, but also one 

 of the conservators is on record with two memoirs 

 (1790, 1791) on the management of coppice and 

 timber forests in which also the theory of thinnings 

 was well developed. But among the foresters of the 

 service there seems not to have been sufficient educa- 

 tion to appreciate these writings, or, with the excep- 

 tion of Guiot with his Manuel for estier (1770), to bring 

 forth any contributions to the literature and art, until 

 the 19th century. In 1803, we find the first encyclo- 

 paedic volume in Traite de V Amenagement des Forets, 

 which was followed, in 1805, by a very incorrect trans- 

 lation of Hartig's Lehrbuch, both by Baudrillart, 

 professor of political economy, who also published 

 in 12 volumes his Traite General des Eaux et Forets. 

 Perthuis, in 1796, and Dralet, a forester, in 1807, also 



