Personnel. 53 
economy for the positions of directors of finance and 
State administration. Rather ignorant of natural science 
and without practical forestry knowledge, their efforts 
were not always well directed. They deserve credit, 
however, for having collected into encyclopedic volumes 
the empiric knowledge of the practitioners or Holz- 
gerechten and for having elaborated it more or less suc- 
cessfully. In this work they were joined by some of the 
professors of cameralia and law at the universities. 
By the middle of the 18th century the hunters had 
so far grown in knowledge and education as to be able 
to produce their knowledge in books of their own. 
Quite a literature developed full of acrimonious war- 
fare of opinions as is the rule where empiricism rules 
supreme. 
Notable progress, however, came only when hunting 
was placed in the background and more or less divorced 
from forest work. 
6. Development of Silviculture. 
In addition to the restrictive measures and attempts 
at mere conservative lumbering without much thought 
of reproduction, there were as early as the 16th century 
silvicultural methods applied to secure or foster repro- 
duction. 
Owing to differences in local conditions and difference 
in necessities, this development varied greatly in time, 
the Western and Middle country practicing as early as 
the 16th century what in the Eastern country did not 
appear until the 18th century. The forest ordinances 
from which we derive our knowledge prescribed, to be 
