COKSERVATIVE LUMBERING. 39 



must do it, for lumber is indispensable. Conse- 

 quentl}", although much of the waste in lumbering 

 is not only unnecessary, but actually costly to the 

 lumberman, for the present it is impossible to avoid 

 waste altogether. It will be easier to do so when the 

 methods and advantages of conservative lumbering, 

 which is forestr}^, are better knowji to the American 

 lumbermen, and are therefore in more general use. 

 Although rough conservative methods have often been 

 practiced in the past, the success of the lumbermen 

 who made the trial was generally but partial, because 

 their knowledge of the forest was partial also. The}^ 

 were often deceived b}^ underestimates of the capacity 

 for tree growth of the lands they were handling, 

 because accurate measurements were wanting, and 

 they seldom made full use of the reproductive power 

 of the forest. More recent attempts, based on better 

 knowledge, have been successful in almost ever}- case. 

 Lumbermen in America are second to none in skill 

 and ingenuit}^, in the perfection of their tools, and in 

 the effectiveness of the methods the}^ have devised. 

 The nations of Europe, although they have given far 

 more attention to forestry than we, are very much 

 behind the United States in these respects. So it 

 is not surprising that Americans have been slow to 

 change their methods, especialh" when methods and 

 lumbermen alike have often been attacked as wrongly 

 and intemperately as the foreign methods have been 

 praised and recommended. German methods would be 

 as much out of place in America as American meth- 

 ods in German}^ What American foresters should do 

 and are doing is to combine the general principles of 



