132 YALE FOREST SCHOOL 

the new field work. This trip carried me to New Mexico, Colo- 
rado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. I 
returned to Washington, D. C., over the Canadian Pacific from 
Vancouver to Montreal. During August I was in Alabama 
on congressional tours and also conferred with the governors of © 
Alabama and of Georgia as to Service codperation with these 
states. In December I left Washington to take up my duties 
in District 3 as assistant chief of silviculture, remaining there 
for nearly three years or until October, 1911, when I sailed for 
Europe on a year’s leave of absence to study forest conditions 
abroad. 
“The fall semester I enrolled at the Forst Akademie at Ebers- 
walde, near Berlin, then I traveled through Germany, France, 
Switzerland and Austria. I became especially interested in 
the management: i. e., in the working plan practice of the 
various countries, and, on settling at Dresden for some months, 
specialized on this subject, having the Forst Akademie at 
Tharandt conveniently near. | 
“Again and again it has been brought home to me that the 
experiences we are making and the stages through which we 
are passing are nothing new but merely the inexorable repeti- 
tion of history modified by changed economic conditions. But 
great as has been the progress made by European nations in 
the science of forestry, it has not resulted in stagnation. New 
ideas and improvements on old methods are constantly being 
introduced and all this makes for progress towards the ideal 
forestry which is, apparently, as far removed from realization 
in Europe as it is in America. 
“This progress of present day forestry in Europe is best 
exemplified, it seems to me, by the turning away from pure 
stands and artificial regeneration toward mixed stands and natural 
regeneration. Throughout Prussia the beech is being coaxed 
back among the Scotch pine stands. Saxony, where spruce 
was raised in pure stands for successive generations, has realized 
that this repetition of the same crop, however profitable, soon 
exhausts the soil. 
“Another striking example of this progress is Professor 
Wagner’s ‘Blendersaumschlag’ or Border Cuttings, whereby 
he regenerates naturally under shelter working from the northern 



