Forestry Literature. 81 



especially as regards planting and sowing, but the sub- 

 ject of forest management or organization is entirely 

 neglected. 



At about the same time (1710) a forest official, v. 

 Oochhausen, published Notdbilia venatoris, which, how- 

 ever, contained little more than a description of the 

 species of trees and methods of their utilization. 



About the middle of the 18th century great activity 

 began in the literary field. This was carried on by two 

 distinct classes of writers, namely, the empiricists and 

 the cameralists. The former — ^the holzgerechte Jager — 

 were the "practical" men of the woods who proved in 

 many directions most impractical and exhibited in their 

 writings, outside of the record of their limited experi- 

 ence, the crassest ignorance. The cameralists were edu- 

 cated in law and political economy, who, while lacking 

 practical contact with the woodswork, tried to sift and 

 systematize the empiricists, and to secure for it a tangi- 

 ble basis. 



Some five or six of the empiricists deserve notice as 

 writers; the first and most noted of them was Doebel 

 (Heinrich Wilhelm) whose book, "Jagerpraktica" 

 (hunters' practice), published in 1746, remained an 

 authority until modem times for the part referring to 

 the chase. The author was pre-eminently a hunter, who 

 worked in various capacities in Saxony, a self-taught 

 man with very little knowledge of natural history. 



Being familiar mainly with broadleaf forest he con- 

 demned planting and thinning, but described quite well 

 for his time the methods of survey, subdivision, estimat- 

 ing and measuring and the methods of selection forest 

 and coppice with standards. 



