SYLVICULTURE 



CHAPTER I 



FOUNDATIONS OF SYLVICULTURE 

 Paragraph I. Introduction. 



" Sylviculture " comprises all human activities by which trees, 

 wood, bark, and any other forest product imaginable are raised and 

 tended. Sylviculture is the art of the second growth, essentially. 



Sylviculture was practiced, in ancient days, for park or for 

 orchard purposes. The first writings on Sylviculture proper appear 

 in the so-called " House Father Literature." 



Sylviculture as a branch of forestry was developed by George 

 L. Hartig, Henry von Cotta, and Christian Hundeshagen, a hundred 

 years ago. 



European standard books on Sylviculture, of a modern char- 

 acter, are those of Charles Heyer (adapted by Sir Wm. Schlich and 

 Richard Hess), by Charles Gayer, by Henry Mayr, and by Wagner- 

 Tuebingen. 



For America, the teachings of European Sylviculture are of 

 no more direct iise, at the present time, than Asiatic teachings 

 might be. The economic and the climatic differences between the 

 various countries are such as to require different methods of Sylvi- 

 culture in each of them. Nevertheless, the ecologic principles 

 underlying the practice of Sylviculture are identical all the world 

 over. 



The planting of forests, on a large scale, is out of the question 

 in America, for the time being. The expense of planting an acre 

 of land in this country exceeds frequently the price at which an 

 acre of merchantable forest may be purchased. The modern owner 

 of woodlands is not far-sighted enoiigh — possibly not credulous 

 enough — to anticipate the arrival of German prices of timber for 

 a time at which the plantations now started will have developed 

 into merchantable trees. 



Assuming that the trees will be as valuable by 1980, in this 

 country, as they are to-day in Germany, France and England, 

 11 



