studies. It is only while engaged in that work that the mind opens 

 itself out to a true knowledge of the forest under examination, and 

 is able to grasp the complex relations with one another of the dif- 

 ferent parts of an Organisation Project, as interdependent and in- 

 separable one from the other as Sylviculture and Forest Organisation 

 are themselves. 



But one or two practical studies in drawing up Organisation 

 Projects does not suffice to complete the education of the Amena- 

 giste.f To be master of the theory as well as of the practice, one must, 

 to speak truly, have studied under various conditions both organised 

 and unorganised forests, have devoted to the work the important 

 element time, without which the mind is incapable of assimilating 

 tlie knowledge it acquires of facts — ^in a word, have been in a position 

 to observe, compare, and judge for oneself, 



TVithin the compass of a few lines serving as a conclusion to this 

 work, we have endeavoured to point out that every Organisation 

 Project is a work by itself, special to the forest it concerns and of 

 necessity different from every other Organisation Project. It is this 

 very circumstance that is a criterion of its merit and that makes 

 it so interesting, but it is also one which constitutes its difficulty. 

 And a correct appreciation of the difficulties presented by the prac- 

 tical exercise of an art is a quality that belongs only to those minds 

 that have already mastered its secrets. 



In an Appendix we have added two short notes, one on mountain 

 forests given over to grazing, the other on pine forests exposed ito 

 fires. These notes are intended to furnish a few useful facts and 

 hints, and will in any case serve to show the reader how, so to say. 

 unlimited a field for study and practice the organisation of forests 

 presents in France, owing to the diversity of conditions found in 

 them. This very diversity makes us afraid to give examples of 

 Organisation Projects, which must either be imperfect or applicable 

 only to a few forests possessing the same characteristics. We have 

 therefore limited ourselves, on the score of examples, to giving a 

 specimen form for keeping a record of the compartments of a 

 forest in, and an analysis of a compound coppice catting. 



■(■ A convement term to denote the person commissioned to dravnp on Organisation 

 Project. 



