OVERTURE. 3 



for some purpose desired have been felled, others around 

 them have been left standing, or have been cut down to 

 allow of the felled timber being brought out ; and the 

 results have been scarcely less destructive than the forest 

 clearings in the Western World. These results may be 

 seen in what were once forest-lands in the colony of the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; and in Europe they may be seen in 

 Northern Russia. 



More than 200 years ago France was in danger of being 

 entirely devastated by this system of jardinage in the 

 exploitation of forests, and there was issued an ordinance 

 requiring that crown forests should be divided into 

 a specified number of sections, one only of which 

 should be exploited at a time, so as to allow time for the 

 trees to be reproduced in each before all the others had 

 been exploited in succession. The measure was hailed as 

 one likely, where adopted, to save not only France, but 

 also other countries in Europe from devastation. But less 

 than 150 years sufficed to show that this was a vain hope, 

 for the reproduced forests were not equal to those which 

 had been felled. And early in the present century there 

 was devised in Saxony a more complicated, but a much 

 more efficient method of exploitation. This is being 

 adopted everywhere on the Continent of Europe ; it has 

 been introduced with most satisfactory results into the 

 management of forests in India ; and the adoption of it 

 seems to be the only means available to prevent the ruin 

 of forests in our colonies, which are now being rapidly 

 destroyed. 



In this also the forest is divided into a number of sec- 

 tions corresponding to the time required for the reproduc- 

 tion of the trees. But instead of exploitation being con- 

 fined to one of these at a time, the supply of wood required 

 is obtained from the felling of the trees in one or more 

 lots, and from the first, second, and third thinnings in 

 others all being so arranged as to secure simultaneously, 

 and without prejudice to one or other of them, an improved 

 condition of the forest, a sustained supply of products, and 



