xvi INTRODUCTION 



to demand in any art more accuracy than the 

 subject admits, or to assume, without proof, 

 that forestry is capable of precise rules, like the 

 arts of building or painting. If rules of forestry 

 could be discovered which were universal, pre- 

 cise, and useful, the knowledge of them would 

 not make a man a forester. They would be like 

 a good library, which is useful but does not 

 make a man a good scholar. 



The modern method of education increases 

 the tendency to over-estimate the theoretical side 

 of forestry and to ignore the practical difficulties. 

 A man who has been taught forestry in a college 

 by means of lectures and examinations, joined 

 to occasional excursions in woods, has no ex- 

 perience in overcoming the difficulties of daily 

 work in the woods, and therefore they do not 

 appear to him to be of great importance. He 

 cannot judge how far he is able to meet them, 

 or to what extent they interfere with the possi- 

 bility of carrying out what he may rightly con- 

 sider to be the best method of management. 

 The practical difficulties of forestry will be 

 apparent to any one as soon as he undertakes 

 the management of woodlands. The total of 

 all his expenses must be kept below the total of 

 all his receipts, and timber in comparison with 



