LA PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 
due to utter indifference toward the subject, but more particularly to 
a misunderstanding of the scope of forestry and the methods advocated 
by the forester. 
In continental Europe the forests have been under careful modern 
management for over a century, and very thorough methods have been 
developed. It has been natural in advocating the practice of forestry 
in this country to cite the example of HKurope, and to describe the 
systems there employed. The details of method have, however, been 
made more prominent than broad principles, and many have been led 
to believe that, unless these methods are adopted, forestry can not be 
practiced at all. 
The systems of forestry employed in Europe are the result of years 
of study and experiment, and have been developed along certain lines 
in obedience to local economic conditions. We may profit from this expe- 
rience through having an object lesson of what may be accomplished 
by forestry, an example which we may hope in time to imitate, and a 
guide to direct our efforts. But we can not expect for a considerable 
length of time to accomplish the results obtained in Europe, and such 
systems of forestry as will accomplish them we can hope to form only 
in the course of natural development, and not by a sudden revolution 
of our present methods. There is no doubt: that the best forests are 
produced by systems of management similar to those practiced abroad; 
but in most cases the expense involved in their establishment is so 
great that we must at first use rougher methods and be satisfied with 
imperfect results. 
DEFINITION OF FORESTRY. 
In order to correct the impression that EKuropean methods are abso- 
lutely necessary for the proper management of the forests in this country, 
a number of enthusiasts have gone so far as to define ordinary lumber- 
ing as forestry. This is fully as faulty as to say that there can be no 
forestry without using European methods. In its real significance, for- 
estry conveys the idea of the continual use of the land for the purpose of 
producing forests. Thus, when a farmer thins his wood lot intelligently — 
with the idea of sparing the small, thrifty timber he is practicing forestry. 
His method of work may not be the best but it is nevertheless forestry, 
just as crude farming is agriculture. When the farmer strips his stump 
land and holds it for successive crops of cord wood or hoop poles, or 
when a lumberman restricts the cutting of timber under a certain size in 
order to utilize the growth of the small trees, each is practicing for- 
estry. But when a landowner cuts down a forest with no intention of 
utilizing the land for future crops of timber, it is no more forestry than 
it is agriculture when a farmer cuts the grass in a mountain meadow 
one year and then abandons it. 
The efforts of the American forester should be directed not toward the 
immediate introduction of European methods, but to devising systems 
