FORESTRY COMMISSIONER. 119 



city. I would get off into the woods themselves and live. 

 How great was my mistake! The forest was all about us. 

 In five minutes' walk from the center of the city one could 

 step into such fine woods as cannot be found in the whole 

 state of Maine. Spruce and fir trees two to three feet 

 through, and all the way up to 130 feet high, stood on 

 the ground as thickly as they could stand. There were 

 acres there that would cut more than 100,000 M. The 

 previous summer I had cruised all through the spruce 

 lands of the Kennebec, and here on single square miles 

 was more timber than on whole townships on that river. 

 And the best of it was this was no new or exceptional 

 thing. The whole area of the forest was doing it. If it 

 hadn't old timber it did have young, which is quite as 

 essential to the result. They were growing that timber 

 right along because they knew how to do it and because 

 they were patient enough to wait for results. " 



FREDERICK THE GREAT, THE FATHER OF GERMAN 

 FORESTRY. 



Frederick the Great promulgated laws in 1740 and 1754 

 for regulating the cutting of wood, which previously had 

 been done as everyone pleased, without any regard to re- 

 planting. In place of such improvident practice he estab- 

 lished rotations of 70 years; that is, he provided that forests 

 should have 70 years in which to mature before being cut, 

 also prescribed methods of thinning so that the young and 

 healthy growth of oak and beech would be better protect- 

 ed. Later instructions were issued in 1764, 1770, 1780, 

 1783. In addition to this he instituted communal forests 

 under the care of wardens, forbade private owners from 

 every wasteful cutting and placed under the care of the 

 state a portion of the forests in Silisia which previously 



