TIMBER; FORESTRY 111 
104. Meaning and importance of forestry. Forestry is the 
art of forest management. It should be based on the scien- 
tifie study of woodlands. This study covers all such topics 
as the distribution of forests over the earth's surface, their 
dependence on soil and climate, and their own influence upon 
these. It also discusses their composition as plant communi- 
ties, their progress from infancy, through youth and maturity, 
to old age, and their relations to the animal world. The utility 
Fie. 93. A prostrate log of sycamore which has lost its bark by decay 
Note the extraordinarily twisted grain of the trunk. If this log had been sawed 
into lumber, it would probably have shown an unusual grain and would have been 
very valuable for interior finishing 
of forests as sources of timber is a most practical forestry 
topie which stands foremost in the estimation of the public. 
Forestry is so extensive a subject that in a portion of a 
chapter like the present one only a few of its most important 
sub-divisions can be briefly discussed. Every well-informed 
person should know, at least in-a general way. what forestry 
is, since the maintenance of some of our best timber lands, 
and the planting of trees in the prairie and plains region, have 
become essential to the preservation of the soil and the keeping 
up of the supply of timber. For about two hundred years one 
of the chief problems of the pioneer farmer in North America 
