C3ome European Pores! Scenes. 



By Dr. JOHN GIFFORD. 



I 



T is highly important that 

 every American forester 

 should spend sometime in 

 the forests of Europe. He 

 should not confine his visits to 

 Germany, but sojourn also in 

 Belgium, Holland, Denmark, 

 France, Italy, Switzerland, 

 Austria and if possible Rus- 

 sia. Aside from what he learns 

 he needs the encouragement of 

 meeting men in the same pro- 

 fession in a region where its 

 importance is recognized and 

 where there is some esprit de 

 corps. One gets tired of explain- 

 ing in a half apologetic way the 

 nature of his profession. Intel- 

 ligent people seem slow to grasp 

 the scope and meaning of the science and art of forestry. This is excusable when 

 we consider that some of our large cities have city-foresters without forests, and 

 that even some American foresters have written to the effect that forestry and 

 lumbering are practically identical, and that what the lumberman has done and 

 is doing is perfectly right in that it seems perfectly adapted to the peculiar con- 

 ditions which exist in this country; that true forestry is a long way in the future, 

 etc. One soon begins to doubt the significance of the profession. 



After a few days sojourn in the Black Forest or in Saxony, however, or in fact in 

 almost any part of Europe, he feels that he is in a noble profession and that the 

 fault is with his countrymen and not with himself or his vocation. 



No man can know what is meant by forestry until he sees forests which have been 

 well managed for a considerable period of time. Such forests do not exist in this 



331 



FAGOT-GATHERERS NEAR PISA. 



