PREFACE. 
This publication is the result of a series of 25 lectures 
which the writer was invited to deliver before the stu- 
dents of forestry in Yale University as a part of their 
regular course of instruction. 
Circumstances made it desirable, in the absence of any 
existing textbooks on the subject, to print at once, for 
the sake of ready reference, the substance of the lectures 
while they were being delivered. 
This statement of the manner in which the book came 
into existence will explain and, it is hoped, excuse the 
crudities of style, which has been also hampered by the 
necessity of condensation. 
The main object was to bring together the informa- 
tion, now scattered and mostly inaccessible to English or 
American readers: the style has been sacrificed to brev- 
ity; it is a book of expanded lecture notes. 
In the nature of the case the book does not lay claim 
to any originality except in the manner of presentation, 
being merely a compilation of facts gathered mostly 
from other compilations, official documents and jour- 
nals. 
For none of the countries discussed does a complete 
work on the history of forests and forestry exist, except- 
ing in the case of Germany, which can boast of a number 
of comprehensive works on the subject. It was, there- 
fore, possible to treat that country more m eztenso. 
Moreover it appeared desirable to enlarge upon the his- 
