PREFATORY NOTE. 



This translation was originally issued in fascicles, the 

 first of which appeared so long ago as December 1880. 

 The entire Manuscript was then already complete and 

 nothing remained but to pass it through the press as 

 quickly as possible. In the meantime, however, circum- 

 stances occurred which have delayed up to this the pub- 

 lication of the final sheets. To narrate those circum- 

 stances here would take too long ; suffice it to say that 

 for more than three years I received no proofs, and to 

 complete the work even now, although only four forms 

 remained to be printed, I have had to go to Bombay and 

 after infinite trouble to secure and bring to Dehra Dun 

 all the previously printed matter comprising pp. 1 — 304, 

 which were ready in November 1882 ! This explanation 

 I owe to those who so readily accorded me their generous 

 support when I first proposed to undertake the trans- 

 lation. 



In then undertaking it I wrote as follows : — 



" A work embodying in a compact form the first prin- 

 ciples of Forest Organisation and Working treated in a 

 &imple manner and taking into account the peculiar ad- 

 ministrative, economic and physical conditions obtaining 

 in India, is what is chiefly and urgently required. Data 

 for such a work in an immediately available form do not 

 exist, nor can they be collected and marshalled together 

 for a considerable number of years yet. In the mean- 

 while, English Translations and Abridgments of French, 

 German and Italian books on the subject cannot fail to 

 be extremely useful." 



