Personnel. 53 



economy for the positions of directors of finance and 

 State administration. Rather ignorant of natural science 

 and without practical forestry knowledge, their efforts 

 were not always well directed. They deserve credit, 

 however, for having collected into encyclopsedic volumes 

 the empiric knowledge of the practitioners or Holz- 

 gerechten and for having elaborated it more or less suc- 

 cessfully. In this work they were joined by some of the 

 professors of cameralia and law at the universities. 



By the middle of the 18th century the hunters had 

 so far grown in knowledge and education as to be able 

 to produce their knowledge in books of their own. 



Quite a literature developed full of acrimonious war- 

 fare of opinions as is the rule where empiricism rules 

 supreme. 



ITotable progress, however, came only when hunting 

 was placed in the background and more or less divorced 

 from forest work. 



6. Development of Silviculture. 



In addition to the restrictive measures and attempts 

 at mere conservative lumbering without much thought 

 of reproduction, there were as early as the 16th century 

 silvicultural methods applied to secure or foster repro- 

 duction. 



Owing to differences in local conditions and difference 

 in necessities, this development varied greatly in time, 

 the Western and Middle country practicing as early as 

 the 16th century what in the Eastern country did not 

 appear until the 18th century. The forest ordinances 

 from which we derive our knowledge prescribed, to be 



