viii PREFACE 



comprise and set forth the details of what may best be 

 termed Practical Forestry. The question how well I have 

 met these inquiries is submitted to the judgment of those 

 who will peruse the following pages. 



My endeavor has been to make the work a Manual of 

 Practical Forestry, indulging in theory no more than is 

 necessary to show the basis upon which theory rests. It is 

 not claimed that a study of this volume will make a fully 

 equipped forester ; for a study of no one book nor of all 

 books can alone do that. The impossible has not been at- 

 tempted. A fully endowed forester must have both a theo- 

 retical and a practical knowledge of all matters pertaining 

 to tree-life, and to this should be added broad experience 

 and large opportunities for observation, covering the re- 

 storation, productivity, harvesting, care, and perpetuation 

 of forests grown and maintained for economic purposes. 

 The average person who may desire to grow trees for such 

 use cannot devote the necessary time to acquiring as full a 

 knowledge of the science of forestry as the expert must 

 possess. Such a course would, for him, be impracticable. 

 It is claimed, however, that by a careful study of the con- 

 tents of this volume one may, with the exercise of good 

 judgment, successfully grow trees for economic purposes 

 without being compelled to call in the services of a trained 

 expert, or without being forced to roam through the do- 

 main of botany, dendrology, and silviculture, or to master 

 mensuration, stem analysis, or other purely technical fea- 

 tures of scientific forestry. Not that experts possessing such 

 knowledge are unnecessary, for they are necessary, and 

 the country cannot do without them any more than it can 

 dispense with the services of highly educated men in agri- 

 culture, or any other line of industry on which the welfare 

 of our country depends. But the average successful farmer 

 does not have to depend wholly upon experts in agriculture 

 successfully to carry on his farming operations, although 

 he may and should be guided by their teachings. Neither 

 should he, when he essays to grow trees for his own use, be 



