icp] 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



107 



studies the life of trees as they occur in 

 roups. He studies the individual as it 

 forms a part of the whole forest. He 

 studies the influences, which affect the de- 

 velopment of trees, and he studies their 

 behavior under different conditions. In 

 other words, studies the life of the forest. 

 This knowledge is classified and arranged 

 in a system. It is the science upon which 

 the whole practice of forestry is based. 

 The forester has taken up dendrology and 

 extended it. He has appropriated the 

 knowledge and embodied it into the sci- 

 ence of silviculture. 



As ordinarily defined, silviculture is the 

 establishment and care of woodlands. It 



ural means. In the popular mind this is 

 the practice of forestry. It may be better 

 called the practice of silviculture, as dis- 

 tinct from the science of silviculture, 

 which I would define as the whole body 

 of observed facts havinsr to do with the 

 life of the forest. 



Silviculture teaches how to produce 

 forests. It is silviculture that distinguishes 

 forestry from ordinary lumbering, and most 

 lumbermen think that silviculture and for- 

 estry are identical. This idea is natural, 

 especially in view of the fact that a num- 

 ber of experiments, to demonstrate prac- 

 tical forestry, have been made in this 

 countrv which are really demonstrations of 



WASTEFUL METHODS OF LUMBERING NEAR HILL CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA. 



is the art of establishing plantations by practical silviculture and not of practical 



seed or bv planting. It is the art of tend- forestry. , 



ing forests, of thinning them for the im- I repeat that forestry is an art and a 



provement of their character and compo- business whose practice is based on scien- 



sition, of pruning, when practical, and of tine facts and principles 1 he practice ^ot 



removing the timber in such a manner silviculture is the art of the foreste, . Heie 



that reproduction will take place by nat- he can show his knowledge of the life and 



