225] Government Forestry Abroad. 41 



precious condition of the surface which the French and Germans 

 unite in describing as 'forest-soil,' so slow in forming and so quick 

 to disappear wherever the full sunlight is allowed to reach the 

 ground, has here been produced in perfection by centuries of forest 

 growth. It is perhaps to this factor, next to the abundance of 

 humidity, that the high annual yield of wood in theSihlwald is due." 



It has been remarked already that there are rea- 

 sons which give the study of forestry in Switzerland 

 peculiar value a value which, in the opinion of the 

 writer, far surpasses that of the more refined German 

 forest organization. For the fundamental difference 

 of political training in the German and Swiss forester 

 works itself out in the character of forest manage- 

 ment with perfect clearness. " The first,' ' says Forst- 

 meister Meister, one of the most eminent of Swiss or 

 of European forest officers, in summing up the matter 

 to the writer, "has always before his eyes a forest 

 organization regulated down to the minutest detail. 

 It is with this organization that he is to deal as best 

 he may. The Swiss (or the republican) standpoint, 

 on the other hand, requires the forester to reach the 

 best result which is possible at the moment by an 

 intelligent application of the general principles of 

 forestry through the medium of forest organization, 

 "which is imperfect and incomplete." It seems 

 hardly necessary to point out along which of these 

 lines the work of the American forester must be 

 shaped, or from which point of view he must approach 

 it. It is an admirable training to become thoroughly 

 at home in the details of the most complete forest 

 organization, but it is a far more practically useful 

 thing in the United States to be able to do without it. 



