PREFACE ix 



The same remarks do not apply to Hough's 

 American works, or to Schlich's Manual of Forestry, 

 recently published under the auspices of the Indian 

 Government as a text-book for the use of the students 

 at Cooper's Hill, who now undergo their period of 

 training there instead of in Germany or France as 

 formerly. Though also compiled chiefly from German 

 sources, that work differs essentially from this in its 

 more didactic aim, in its detailed descriptions of the 

 various operations of sowing, planting, tending, &c., 

 necessary for students without any previous knowledge 

 of woodland craft, and in its merely alluding in 

 the briefest possible manner to the sylvicultural 

 characteristics and treatment of each of our British 

 forest trees. 



Even despite the increased use of substitutes like 

 iron, and the fact that owing to improvements in 

 communication and transport the streets of London 

 are partly paved with wood from Australia, whilst 

 practically the only timber now used in the con- 

 struction of the wooden walls of England is teak from 

 Burma, the demands for timber utilised in the building 

 and other trades are constantly increasing, so that 

 wherever good timber can be produced in our home 

 forests there is little likelihood of it failing to find a 

 fair market. It is not at all likely, however, that 

 landowners will put fresh land under forest, which, 

 except in the case of osier-beds cut over annually, 

 always involves a certain amount of outlay without 

 immediate return as in agriculture, unless it can be 

 shown to be a remunerative operation ; but the 

 more thoroughly the principles of sylviculture are 

 understood, and the deductions therefrom are given 



