FOREST EXPLOITATION. 181 



to a minimum ; measures for precautions against fires, the 

 ravages of destructive insects, trespass, damage, or theft 

 by men and cattle. All these must be taken into con- 

 sideration and borne in mind at each successive stage. 

 Nor must it be supposed that when ouce an indigenous 

 forest has been mapped, valued, and working plans pre- 

 pared, the necessity for attending to all such considerations 

 is at an end. On the contrary, it is, found necessary to 

 have a revision* of the working plan every ten or twenty 

 years. It may be found advisable to change the crop as 

 in agriculture, to convert a hard wood into a coniferous 

 forest, or vice versa, to replace oak by beech, or to plant up 

 (unter bau) the former with spruce or beech to cover the 

 ground and keep down the growth of grass. All these and 

 a hundred other details are constantly presenting them- 

 selves for consideration and settlement, and the local forest 

 officer should be ever on the alert to detect the necessity 

 of any change and bring it to notice, and no less than the 

 controlling branch should he be prepared to suggest what is 

 best to be done, and be conversant with what has been 

 done and with what results, under similar circumstances, 

 in other districts and provinces.' 



In a paper read by him before the Otago Institute in 

 Dunedin, New Zealand, on December 21, 1876, entitled 

 State Forestry : its Aim and Object, he says in regard to 

 the way in which operations are initiated in Germany and 

 France : — 



' When a forest is about to be taken in hand and worked 

 systematically, a surveyor and valuator from the forest 

 staff are despatched to the spot— the former working under 

 the directions of the latter, who places himself in commu- 

 nication with the local forest officer (if there be one), and the 

 local officials and inhabitants interested, and obtains from 

 them all the information in his power. The surveyor first 

 surveys the whole district or tract, then the several blocks 

 or subdivisions as pointed out by the valuator, who defines 

 them according to the description and age of the timber 



