INTRODUCTION. 



It is proper that I should preface the following essay by a state- 

 ment of the circumstances which led to its preparation. 



A letter of mine, on "Tree Culture," which was published in the 

 New York Nation of Dec. 1, 1881, elicited so many inquiries from 

 such widely separated sections of the country, as to convince me 

 that the subject was one of very general interest. In every letter I 

 received the question was asked, "Where can I find any treatise or 

 book of instruction on the management of our native forests ?" and 

 I was forced to reply that I knew of no such book, and had been 

 assured, on the highest authority, that there was no foreign work 

 that was applicable to our wants. All that I had learned upon the 

 subject had been from experience and observation, and I felt pain- 

 fully conscious of my own ignorance of much that pertains to it. 

 But the questions that were asked me by intelligent inquirers afford- 

 ed in themselves sufficient evidence of a general want of recognition 

 of some of the principles which experience had taught me were of 

 essential importance in forest culture. These I have endeavored to 

 set forth in the following essay, which I have had the honor of 

 reading to a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature, and to the 

 National Forestry Congress, at Cincinnati. 



H. W. S. Cleveland. 



97 Washington Btreet, 

 Chicago, III,, May 1, 1882. 



