Forest Conditions. 9 
the rule, until necessity arises for greater care in the 
exploitation, for more rational distribution of farm and 
forest area, and finally for intentional reproduction of 
wood as a useful crop. 
Correspondingly forest conditions change from the 
densely forested hills and mountain slopes during the 
age of the nomad and hunter to the “enclaves” or patches 
of field and pasture enclosed by the forest of the first 
farmers, then the opening up of the valleys and low- 
lands, while the hills and mountain farms return to 
forest and finally with the increase of population and 
civilization in valleys and plains a reduction of the for- 
est area and a decrease of forest wealth. 
While we have many isolated references to forest con- 
ditions and progress of forest exploitation among the 
ancients in the writings of poets and historians, these 
are generally too brief to permit us to gain a very clear 
picture of the progress of forest history; except in iso- 
lated cases, they furnish only glimpses, allowing us to 
fill in the rest to some extent by guess. 
That the countries occupied and known to the an- 
cients, even Spain and Palestine, were originally well- 
wooded there seems little doubt, although in the drier 
regions and on the drier limestone soils, the forest was 
perhaps open as is usual under such conditions, and 
truly arid, forestless regions were also found where they 
exist now. Although it has been customary to point out 
some of the Mediterranean and Eastern countries as 
having become deserts and depopulated through defor- 
estation, and although this is undoubtedly true for 
