1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



179 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



"Forstaisthctik." By Heinrich von Salisch. 

 Second edition. Octavo, paper cover, pp. 

 314. Illustrated with sixteen full-pa.ye 

 heliot^-pes and fifty-nine half-tones and 

 figures. Berlin : Julius Springer, 1902. 



A second edition of " Forstasthetik," by 

 Heinrich von Salisch, should interest all pro- 

 fessional foresters, as well as lovers of nature 

 generally. The excellent reputation enjoj-ed 

 by the author for more than fifteen years as an 

 interpreter of the beauties of trees and forests 

 is confirmed by this second appearance of his 

 book, which has been enlarged by valuable ad- 

 ditions to the text and enriched by numerous 

 illustrations. 



" Forstasthetik " has the peculiar distinction 

 of being the only book ever written upon the 

 subject with which it deals. It is a critical 

 study of the aesthetic value of artificial forests. 

 Such forests, as a result of the careful, system- 

 atic treatment which they have received, have 

 developed special characteristics and present a 

 great variet}' of beauty and expression. These 

 forms of beauty are worthy of study and inter- 

 pretation, and may be brought out to advantage 

 in the hands of a forester of taste. By adding a 

 knowledge of forest ae.sthetics to a thorough un- 

 derstanding of the usual principles of forestry, 

 the beaut}' of a forest may be greatly increased 

 without sacrificing any of the material benefits 

 which may be rightfulh- expected from a care- 

 ful system of forest management. 



The book is composed of two parts, each of 

 which is divided into two sections. Section A 

 of Part I treats of the scope, value, and histor}' 

 of forest aesthetics and of the philosophy of 

 beauty. In Section B the author first discusses 

 the relation between natural and artistic beauty 

 and the significance of color in landscape, and 

 then explains the sources of beauty in some of 

 the principal components of the forest, includ- 

 ing the most important German forest trees. 

 Section A of Part II is devoted to a study of 

 the aesthetic effects resulting from the various 

 operations involved in the highly developed 

 SN'stems of German forest management, and is 

 based upon the truths and principles set forth 

 in Part I. In this section the author considers 

 such questions as the construction of road sys- 

 tems, the subdivision of forest areas, the rota- 

 tion of the forest, and the different modes of 

 regeneration. The last section deals with a 

 number of special measures for the adornment 

 of the forest, which, in the author's opinion, 

 may rightfull}' be included within the scope of 

 forestry. 



There is a natural inclination among forest- 

 ers, American as well as European, to oppose 

 the introduction of ae.sthetics into forestry. As 

 the aims of forestry, in the minds of mo.st peo- 

 ple, are essentialh" practical and utilitarian, 

 there is a fear that aesthetic considerations or 

 ' ' sentimentality " may interfere with their free 

 execution. Mr. von Salisch meets such criti- 



cism by showing that forest aesthetics is dis- 

 tinct from landscape art, and that an intelli- 

 gently developed s3\stem of forestrj' will in it- 

 self produce a great deal of beauty. It is only 

 in the last section of his book that he suggests 

 any departure from this fundamental idea. 

 While in that section he goes so far as to pro- 

 pose certain measures belonging more properly 

 to landscape art, a careful consideration of the 

 subject will show that the measures selected 

 are in realit}' to a certain extent justified under 

 the exceptionally advanced system of forestry 

 prevailing in Germany. Mr. von Salisch, how- 

 ever, does not at all approve of the idea of 

 transforming forests into parks ; on the con- 

 trary, he is even inclined to discourage the es- 

 tablishment of large parks on the ground that 

 such a policy creates unremunerative areas (p. 

 209). 



Foresters who have not read Mr. von Salisch's 

 book will possibly be surprised to learn that 

 the aesthetic side of forestry' is itself decidedly 

 helpful in a number of ways in furthering the 

 material interests of the forest (pp. 4 to 10). 



The author's treatment is marked by breadth 

 of knowledge, thoroughness, careful discrimi- 

 nation, and refinement of taste. The style, 

 though occasionally somewhat involved at 

 least for American and English readers is 

 generally clear and specific and often decidedly 

 pleasing. Though dealing with an entirely 

 new subject, the author is free from all self- 

 assertiveness. One of the chief merits of the 

 book is its suggestiveness. The text is inter- 

 spersed with numerous extracts from writers 

 on forestry who hav^e incidentally referred to 

 forest aesthetics. In treating the subject from 

 these various points of view the author dis- 

 plays exceptional constructive ability, as well 

 as a high degree of critical insight. 



The heliotype illustrations, which are very 

 well executed, form an attractive feature of 

 the book and, together w'ith the half-tones 

 and figures, are helpful in connection with the 

 text. 



The ideas suggested in this book naturally 

 grew out of the peculiarly exact methods of 

 forestry practiced in Germany, and many of 

 them are hardly applicable to the United 

 States, where, for some time to come, forest 

 operations will have to be adjusted to compara- 

 tively crude conditions. It does not follow, 

 however, that the book before us has not con- 

 siderable practical value for American for- 

 esters. Enormous areas, including some of 

 the finest scenery of the country, are being 

 entrusted to them. As years go by, people are 

 becoming more and more interested in these 

 forest areas as places offering recreation and a 

 needed change from the busy life of cities ; 

 places where natural beauty and quiet may be 

 enjoyed for their own sakes. This attitude of 

 a large class of people should not be disre- 

 garded by the forester. When he learns to 



