CI'RMANT FORKST 7 



any particular Formula or Theory of Regulating the Cut, it was 

 not even largely due to the Working Plan of i860 and the revisions 

 since, for this forest was in good condition, as all the old stands 

 amply prove, as much as 80 and 100 years ago, and there had been 

 good business here long before most of the formulas and theories 

 of our books had been published. It was the orderly work of capable 

 men, faithfully persisted in, which built up this forest. On the 

 other hand it is also true that it was Cotta's teaching of Regulation 

 which gave to this forest (and hundreds of others) the proper 

 division into Lots, and prepared the way for the necessary road 

 system, and it was also Cotta's teaching which established the 

 method of Regulating the Cut now followed here, converting an 

 unsettled practice into a well-based, and recognized policy. 



This, then, is the kind of forest business which the forester 

 wishes to establish and d€velop in the U. S. and for which there 

 is the best of opportunity and the greatest of need. Several hundred 

 million acres of wild woods await proper development, and a nation 

 which uses over half of all the lumber cut in the world, is dependent 

 on this development for its future supplies of timber. 



3. HISTORY. 



Forest Regulation, like Silviculture (and farming) is not new. 

 To be sure, history tells but little about the arrangement of the 

 work in the woods. But the excellent forests which were built up 

 and of which at present some old stands date back 200 years to 

 testify to good Silviculture, at least ; then also the supply of good 

 timber continuing for centuries, as recorded in the history of cities 

 like Zurich, Frankfort, Nuremberg, Vienna, etc., and the timber 

 business of the Rhine and other rivers, and lastly the scattered 

 fragments of direct written record, all these clearly show that an 

 orderly procedure in starting, caring for and in harvesting the crop 

 developed early. In 1359 the forest of the City of Ehrfurth was 

 divided into seven parts, to be worked over in regular order. In 

 1422 the City Council of Zurich decided that the cut of the Sihlwald 

 shall not exceed 20,000 pieces of timber per year, probably the 

 oldest recorded volume regulation known. In 1630 a regular system 

 of bookkeeping was started in this same forest and in 1696 the first 



