230 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 7, 1890. 



property of the state and it rested with the Government to say 

 what was to be done. The influence of the mercantile com- 

 munity was great, and for a time their arguments prevailed 

 with the Government at Calcutta. Orders were issued to open 

 the forests to private enterprise. Fortunately these orders 

 admitted of delay, and after a time wiser counsels carried the 

 day. In this manner has it been possible to carry out the 

 scheme of working the Teak-forests of Pegu upon a systematic 

 plan. 



The result has been favorable beyond all expectation. Ever 

 since 1856 the Teak-forests of Pegu have yielded a large annual 

 out-turn of timber, increasing in quantity as well as improving 

 in quality, and at the same time the demand for Teak-timber 

 has risen steadily. This has stimulated the export from other 

 ports. The quantity of Teak-timber brought into the market 

 from all sources has increased enormously since 1856, and 

 yet, owing to the increased demand, prices have remained 

 high. The trade has benefited largely and the growth of Ran- 

 goon has been rapid and steady beyond all expectation. In 

 1856 the Teak-forests of Pegu were not closed. The full quan- 

 tity of timber, which their condition justified, was cut and 

 exported annually, but the work was arranged in such a man- 

 ner that their productive powers were not impaired and that 

 the capital value of these estates was increased instead of 

 being diminished. Lastly, Government has derived a large 

 and steadily increasing annual income from this source. This 

 was a point of vital importance. A new scheme had been 

 carried out in the teeth of great and powerful opposition, and 

 there was good reason to apprehend that unless revenue was 

 produced the new scheme would not be permitted to 

 continue. 



As it was, the experience gained in Pegu acted as a power- 

 ful stimulus to systematic forest-management in all provinces 

 of the large British-Indian Empire. Here, as in Pegu, the duty 

 of taking action devolved upon the state, and the government 

 is now reaping the reward of these measures in the shape of a 

 large and steadily increasing annual forest-revenue and a large 

 and steadily growing capital value of its forest-domains. The 

 success attained in the management of the Government for- 

 ests has induced native princes and large landed proprietors 

 to follow suit and to manage their woodlands in a similar 

 manner. 



If it once comes to be understood in America that good for- 

 est-management does not mean the closing of the forests, but 

 working them with moderation and on a definite plan, that 

 forest thus managed is a permanent and valuable investment, 

 then, not the state only, but private proprietors also, will com- 

 mence managing their woodlands in a methodical manner, 

 instead of allowing them to be ruined. 



In a late issue of one of the leading German forest-period- 

 icals, Wilhelm Kessler, a Prussian forest-officer, gives an 

 account of his journey through the forests of Mexico and the 

 United States. He describes a large forest of the Monterey 

 Pine on the coast of California, which is carefully protected by 

 the proprietor. Again, in a remarkable and most interesting 

 book on the forests of North America, just published, the 

 author, Dr. Heinrich Mayr, now Professor of Forestry at the 

 Imperial Forest School of Japan, mentions his rides through 

 large areas of virgin forest, kept in reserve by timber specu- 

 lators and carefully protected until their turn comes to be cut 

 down. Here, then, we have the first beginning of regular 

 management, consisting in protection and successive cuttings. 

 The second step is thus to arrange matters that on the places 

 where cuttings have been made, young forest, consisting of 

 the valuable species, shall grow up, so that when the last 

 piece of the old forest has been cut down, a sufficient area of 

 second growth with timber of the kind and size required may 

 be ready for cutting. These arrangements will be facilitated 

 by the great reproductive powers which some of the more 

 important American forest-trees possess. In that portion of 

 his book which treats of the forests in the Atlantic region, Dr. 

 Mayr gives an account of the manner in which the White Pine 

 {Pinus Strobus) reproduces readily from self-sown seed, 

 wherever climatic and other conditions are favorable for its 

 development. Regarding the Douglas Fir, the author states 

 facts which show that under favorable conditions complete 

 forests of second growth are produced from self-sown seed. 

 Wilhelm Kessler, in the paper quoted, states the same for 

 the Yellow Pine {Pinus ponderosa). Hence it will be possible, 

 if due care is taken in arranging the cuttings and in the sub- 

 sequent treatment of the forest, to secure the regeneration, 

 by self-sown seed, of valuable woods. To this primary object 

 the attention of all those who are engaged in forest-operations 

 in North America should be directed. It is only by actual 

 experience and by series of experiments conducted on a regu- 



lar system that the question can be solved, how cuttings 

 should be arranged and what treatment should be adopted in 

 order to produce a complete crop of young trees of the par- 

 ticular kind desired. Such arrangement of cuttings and such 

 system of treatment will, as a matter of course, be different 

 for each kind of tree, and will also differ according to soil and 

 situation. Nor will it be feasible in all cases to secure a 

 renewed crop from self-sown seedlings alone. Nature must 

 be assisted in various ways, by hoeing the ground or other- 

 wise, and in many instances by sowing and planting, in order 

 to attain the object aimed at. 



To these matters the labors of foresters in Germany, in 

 France and in other countries of Europe have long been 

 directed, and the result has been that in these countries the 

 art of managing forests has gradually developed into a pro- 

 fession, analogous to the profession of law or of medicine. 

 The fundamental principles of jurisprudence are as plain and 

 as easily intelligible as the fundamental principles which 

 underlie the profession of a forester. The application of 

 these principles, however, is a difficult and complicated busi- 

 ness. Just as it requires much study to master the profession 

 of a lawyer, so it is with forestry. Again, just as the profes- 

 sion of medicine is based upon many branches of natural 

 science, such as chemistry, physics, anatomy and physiology, 

 so also an efficient forester ought to be at home in mathe- 

 matics, botany, chemistry, geology and other exact sciences. 



Evidently, therefore, manuals are needed to facilitate the 

 study of forestry, and the work of which the title appears at 

 the head of this article is the first comprehensive manual of 

 forestry that has appeared in the English language. The 

 author, Dr. William Schlich, is one of two German forest- 

 officers whom the writer, while Inspector-General of Forests 

 in India, was permitted to engage for the Indian Forest Ser- 

 vice. Before going out to India in 1866, Dr. Schlich had 

 passed the examinations for the superior forest-service in his 

 own country (Hesse-Darmstadt), he had been the pupil of one 

 of the most eminent professors of forestry in Germany, the 

 late Gustav Heyer, and he held a distinguished place among his 

 fellow students. In India he was designated at an early date 

 for important positions ; he served successively in several 

 provinces until he rose to the post of Inspector-General of 

 Forests. This important position he consented to relinquish 

 in 1885, in order to take up the appointment of Principal Pro- 

 fessor of Forestry at the English Forest School which it had 

 been decided to form in connection with the Royal Indian 

 Engineering College at Cooper's Hill. 



The first volume of the Manual contains the general and 

 introductory part ; in a second volume the author proposes to 

 set forth in detail the different silvicultural operations ; while 

 the protection of forests, the utilization of timber and other 

 forest-produce, the systematic arrangement of the plans for 

 working and the financial aspect of forest-management will 

 complete the work. Not the least of the advantages which 

 will be gained by the publication of this Manual will be to 

 settle the English forest terminology. When methodical 

 forest-management was begun in India some thirty-four years 

 ago, it was necessary to devise terms for matters connected 

 with the treatment of forests for which, at that time, no con- 

 venient expressions existed in the English language. The 

 technical terms which then were tentatively used, may now, 

 through the publication of this Manual, be expected to receive 

 general currency, while in some cases more suitable terms 

 will be substituted for those originally used. _ 



Bonn, Germany. D. BrandlS. 



Correspondence. 

 Hardy Plants at Short Hills, New Jersey. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — A few days of genial weather has brought rapidly for- 

 ward the early spring flowers, and I found in Messrs. Pitcher 

 & Manda's nursery many interesting plants in bloom. The 

 hardy plant department of this establishment is at some dis- 

 tance from the greenhouses, on the main road near the rail- 

 road station, and the situation is well adapted to such a nur- 

 sery, being rolling ground with various exposures, and sloping 

 at one point to a small stream. One notices, on entering the 

 grounds, that a long, wide border has been made along the 

 highway and filled with an assortment of plants for the bene- 

 fit of the public. Varieties of Phlox subulata (Moss Pink) 

 brightened up the beds near the entrance with masses of flow- 

 ers which entirely hid the foliage. Excellent plants for spring 

 carpeting they are, though some of the reds are not quite 

 pleasing. A Phlox of more recent introduction is the white 



