22 Germany. 
retical ideals, and others which lack a sure scientific 
foundation ; and while the general policy of conservative 
management and of State interest in the same is thor- 
oughly established, the methods of attaining the result are 
neither uniform through the various States which form 
the German Federation, nor positively settled anywhere. 
In other words the history of forestry is still, even in 
this most advanced country, in the stage of lively devel- 
opment. 
For the student of forestry the history of its develop- 
ment in Germany is of greatest interest not only because 
his art has reached here the highest and most intensive 
application, but because all the phases of development 
through which other countries have passed or else will 
eventually have to pass are here exemplified, and many 
if not most of the other countries of the world have been 
at least influenced by German precedent or have more or 
léss followed German example; there is hardly a policy 
or practice that has not at some time in some part been 
employed in the fatherland of forestry. 
One reason for this rich historical background is the 
fact, that Germany has never been a unit, that from its 
earliest history it was broken up into many independent 
and, until modern times, only loosely associated units, 
which developed differently in social, political and econ- 
omic direction. This accounts also for the great variety 
of conditions existing even to-day in the 26 principalities 
which form the German empire. 
The 208,830 square miles of territory,* which sup- 
ports a population of 57 million people, still contain 
a forest area of a round 35 million acres (26% of the 
* The statistics in this book do not pretend to be more than approximations, 
