INTRODUCTORY. 



The value of studying the historical development of 

 an economic subject or of a technical art which, like for- 

 estry, relies to a large extent upon empiricism, lies in the 

 fact that it brings before us, in proper perspective, ac- 

 cumulated experience, and enables us to analyze cause 

 and effect, whereby we may learn to appreciate the rea- 

 sons for present conditions and the possibilities for ra- 

 tional advancement. 



If there be one philosophy more readily derivable than 

 another from the study of the history of forestry it is 

 that history repeats itself. The same policies and the 

 same methods which we hear propoimded to-day have at 

 some other time been propounded and tried elsewhere: 

 we can study the results, broaden our judgment and 

 avoid the mistakes of others. 



Such study, if properly pursued, tends to free the 

 mind from many foolish prejudices and particularly 

 from an unreasonable partiality for our own country 

 and its customs and methods, merely because they are 

 our own, substituting the proper patriotism, which ap- 

 plies the best knowledge, wherever found, to our own 

 necessities. 



Nowhere is the record of experience and the historic 

 method of study of more value than in an empiric art 

 like forestry, in which it takes decades, a lifetime, nay 

 a centu]^^ to see the final effects of operations. 



^Forestry is an art born of necessity, as opposed to arts 



