SYSTEMATIC FORESTRY 109 



result of years of negligence, due partly to a 

 desire to use woods merely as game preserves 

 and partly to the natural stupidity of land- 

 owners. The practical remedy suggested is 

 adherence to great and universal truths about 

 forestry which are said to have been discovered 

 in Germany and to have been practised there 

 in the State forests for many years, and as a 

 means thereto the " appointment at Universities, 

 Academies, Institutes, and Forest Schools of 

 many professors of high scientific attainments 

 as teachers of the science of Forestry and the 

 Art of Sylviculture." x 



There is no doubt that English forestry, like 

 everything else, is capable of improvement, and 

 that academies and professors may be very 

 useful. Still, it is possible to overestimate the 

 advantage of having numerous professors and 

 the inferiority of English compared with German 

 woods. 



Speaking generally, the operations of forestry 

 such as planting, tending the young trees, and 

 thinning are well understood and properly carried 

 out in England. Mistakes have no doubt often 

 been made. 



Over-thinning may have been the practice, 



1 Studies in Forestry. Nisbet. Introduction. 



