ito FORESTRY IN SPAIN. 



SECTION 4. STUDIES OF FOURTH YEAR. 



In the fourth year of the student's curriculum, he is 

 required to give attention to xilometry ; forest ordenacion, 

 or forest partition and systematic exploitation on scientific 

 principles; forest industries; the administration of law; 

 and political economy- 

 Sylviculture, to which attention is given in the third 

 year of the course of study, and xilometry and forest 

 ordenacion, to which attention is given in the fourth year 

 of that curriculum, all relate to the modern scientific 

 exploitation of forests, which, devised and developed by 

 Hartig and Cotta in Saxony, in the beginning of the 

 present century, has been introduced into Spain as into 

 the other countries on the Continent of Europe, giving a 

 character to the whole course of procedure in regard to 

 forests, and the training of forest officials for the manage- 

 ment of these. 



Sub-Section 1. Xilometry and Forest Ordenacion. 



Xilometry comprises all that relates to the measuring of 

 wood, and the principles involved in the application of this 

 to trunks, boughs, and branches of growing trees, in order 

 to enable the administrator of a forest to ascertain what 

 cubic increase is being made by growth in each year, or 

 decade, in the trees of a forest under his administration 

 that he may proportion to this the quantity of timber or 

 firewood which may be taken from different compartments 

 in it, it may be in different stages of growth and with 

 varying degrees of vegetative vitality, with a view to 

 insuring sustained productiveness. Ordenacion relates to 

 the partitioning of the forest into compartments ; with a 

 view to successive thinnings of different extent, culminating 

 in a final felling, which will leave only the trees reserved for 

 seeding to ensure the natural re-production of the forest. 

 And Sylviculture relates to the culture of seedlings, saplings, 



