vi PREFACE 



custodian of the State Forests, has moved in a similai 

 direction by the establishment of a school for working 

 foresters in the Porest of Dean, and is contemplating a 

 similar establishment in the north of England, both of 

 which should form important steps in the development of 

 forestry education. The owner of woodlands is, therefore, 

 no longer compelled to employ incompetent men, nor remain 

 in ignorance as to the best course to pursue in the manage- 

 ment of his woods, and the gradual improvement of estate 

 forestry may be confidently expected as one result of those 

 events. 



Other changes in estate forestry which may be looked for 

 are the more careful selection of profitable species in planting 

 operations, and the gradual conversion of unprofitable systems 

 of sylviculture, such as coppice, or '' coppice with standards," 

 into ordinary plantation. The first of these changes must be 

 accompanied by a cheaper method of raising, or a reduction 

 in the cost price of such species as Douglas fir, Corsican pines, 

 and other species which must be planted on a large scale in 

 comparatively poor ground, and we must look to our public 

 nurserymen to effect this. The gradual substitution of planta- 

 tions for coppice woods will greatly depend upon the interest 

 extended to woods by their owners, and will have to be accom- 

 panied by a certain amount of self-sacrifice in the way of 

 game-cover and nett rental, which will doubtless be readily 

 borne by those who have the welfare of their estates at heart. 



With regard to criticisms of various kinds which have 

 appeared in the public Press, it is only necessary to remark 

 that many of them were anticipated by the author. In some 

 cases they were due to the failure of the reviewer to realise 

 the author's object in writing the book to begin with, and to 

 regard it as a text-book in which omissions of various kinds 

 constituted faults. In other cases they arose from a differ- 

 ence of opinion which is inseparable from the discussion of 

 many aspects of English forestry. Amongst the latter may 

 be mentioned the larch disease, which was dealt with in the 

 light of the author's experience rather than as a cut-and- dried 

 specimen in a museum of forest pathology. If the findings 

 of the recent committee appointed by the Eoyal Scottish 



