AUTHOE'S PEE FACE. ix 



have appeared to me to constitute a real progress in 

 Forest knowledge.* 



I have followed the order of subjects prescribed by 

 the programme drawn up in execution of the Minis- 

 terial Resolution of 8th April, 1870. An extract from 

 this programme is given lower down in so far as 

 concerns Sylviculture.! I have above all studied to 

 be brief, so as to give all the greater prominence to 

 questions of importance. Have I succeeded at the 

 same time in being clear ? 



Such as it is, I commit this Manual to the judg- 

 ment of my comrades, whose criticism I shall receive 

 with gratitude, happy if I have been of any use to 

 Officers and subordinates, as well as to proprietors 

 and managers of estates. 



* The chief of these is undoubtedly the theory as to the quantity 

 of reserves to be left in a coppice with standards, which theory the 

 Author was the first to formulate in a definite manner and to sup- 

 port on the authority of the Forest code itself, whose provisions on 

 this head had, previous to this, been entirely misunderstood. 



t The programme has been omitted in this translation, as it can 

 have no interest for the general reader. 



