PREFACE 



THE various chapters of the present work formed two short 

 courses of lectures on the Principles of Sylviculture, which 

 were delivered, during the Lent and Michaelmas Terms of last 

 year (1893), at the Botanic Garden in Oxford, where Professor 

 Vines, F.R.S., was good enough to arrange for their delivery 

 in his class-room. I am further indebted to him for kind 

 assistance given during the revision of the proofs, and gladly 

 take this opportunity of tendering my thanks to him on both 

 accounts. 



With the permission of the Secretary of State for India, 

 I have been enabled to make several of the chapters more 

 complete than they might otherwise have been, by utilizing 

 freely the greater portion of a series of six Essays on Sylvi- 

 cultural Subjects, which were written by me in Bavaria during 

 1892, and were published in 1893 by the Government of India 

 for distribution among their Forest Officers. 



As will be apparent throughout every chapter, my convictions 

 regarding economic Forestry, i. e. Sylviculture, have been formed 

 in a Teutonic school. But Science is Truth ; and in acquiring 

 information with regard to the growth of Forest Trees, or 

 concerning any other branch of natural knowledge, it ought 

 to be a matter of perfect indifference from what well this may 



