CHAPTER VII. 



METHODS OF FOREST CROP PRODUCTION: 

 SILVICULTURE. 



There is nothing that needs to be more strongly 

 emphasized and impressed upon the American 

 public, and even upon the young professional for- 

 ester, than that the main business of the forester 

 is expressed in the one word " reproduction " ; his 

 main obligation is the replacement of the crop 

 he has harvested, whether produced by unaided 

 nature or otherwise, by as good, if not a better 

 crop of timber than he found. 



Silviculture, the technique of the growing of 

 wood-crops, a branch of the broader subject of 

 arboriculture, is the pivot upon which the whole 

 forestry business turns. 



As the farmer sows and reaps, so the forester 

 harvests and replaces, although the methods of the 

 two have little in common. Nor are the methods 

 employed in other arboricultural pursuits applica- 

 ble, such as the orchardist uses where the fruit is 

 the object, or the landscape gardener, who looks 

 for aesthetic effect, or the roadside planter, who 

 desires the shade. 



i6s 



