

PREFACE. 



A LTHOUGH numerous works on Sylviculture have at various 

 times been published in this country, some being purely 

 the outcome of home observations, and others translations, or, 

 for the most part, compilations from French and German 

 sources, there has, so far as I am aware, never yet been any 

 work issued from the press dealing succinctly with that most 

 important branch of Forest Science or Woodcraft which relates 

 to the Protection of Woodlands. 



After weighing the question, whether or not it would be desir- 

 able to compile a short manual on this special subject from the 

 larger and more exhaustive works published in Germany, the home 

 of Forest Science, I could not but come to the conclusion that, 

 in view of the present untutored state of Woodcraft as a Science 

 in Britain, the translation of such a simple, terse, and, at the same 

 time, strictly scientific and practical little work as Kauschinger's 

 Lehre vom Waldschutz, in its Fourth Edition (1889), completely 

 revised and re-arranged by Dr Fiirst, Director of the Bavarian 

 Forest Institute at Aschaffenburg, would probably be of more 

 practical benefit to Sylviculturists in Scotland and England than 

 a work of a more exhaustive and ambitious nature, which, from 

 the higher price its publication would entail, even if for no other 

 reason, might perhaps fail in reaching the class of practical 

 foresters and students of Forestry, for whom this little book is as 

 much intended as for those engaged in supervising and controlling 

 Sylvicultural operations, either as owners or agents. 



