18 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cation of such forest management acceptable. A discussion of the principles of forest economy 

 in general is also appended. 



To have established the conception that forestry, silviculture, and forest preservation is not 

 the planting of trees, but cutting them in such a manner that planting becomes unnecessary, is 

 one of the most potent results of the efforts of the Division of Forestry. Timber land owners 

 have begun to realize that forestry begins when the first tiee is cut. Planting is expensive and 

 should be practiced only where the chances for a natural reproduction by intelligent use of the 

 ax have been frustrated by inan's carelessness or where they did not exist, as in the forestless 

 regions of the West. 



Forest preservation, it must by this time have become clear, does not consist in leaving the 

 forest unused, but in securing its reproduction, just as the human race is preserved by the 

 removal of the old and the fostering of the young. 



APPLICATION OP PORESTRY PRINCIPLES. 



To apply forestry principles, be it in forest economy or be it in silviculture, we must study 

 local conditions in the Held. 



In this direction the Division has had, at first, poor opportunities. Not only did it not have 

 at its command any land or forest area for experimental or demonstration purposes, but the men 

 to carry on such field work were as yet not educated for the special work to be undertaken. 



Again, while the basis for an application of forestry principles may be gained by studies in 

 the field, the final application can be secured only by trained men, just as any other technical 

 business requires technical knowledge and skill. 



It might have been possible to make some practical demonstration of the methods of forest 

 regulation and of silviculture by inducing private timber-land owners to permit their properties to 

 be placed at the disposal of the Division for such demonstration, but the writer was at once met 

 with the objection that such a course would not be a proper policy for the Government, as the 

 use of public money for the benefit of private individuals would not be justified, even though a 

 valuable object lesson might be gained thereby. Attempts were made to secure permission 

 to use public timber lands or military reservations for such demonstration purposes, but without 

 success. Practical experiments in the field were therefore excluded, with the exception of the 

 experimental planting which became possible later through the cooperation of the agricultural 

 State experiment stations. 



The Division was on the whole reduced to such studies and investigations as could be 

 carried on without the control of any demonstration areas. The vast extent of our empire, with 

 such diversity of soils, climate, and economical conditions, made the task of selecting even these 

 problems of local application an appalling one, especially under the limitations imposed by small 

 appropriations and the absence of trained men. The large number of valuable species of trees of 

 which the United States can boast adds to the difficulties in securing the necessary information 

 for the application of their management in the regulated foiest. 



While the European forester can concentrate his attention upon a half dozen or so of the 20 

 or 30 species indigenous to his world, we are called upon to select from 500 species the 100 or 

 more which we recognize as valuable for the forest. Not even their names are sufficiently 

 established to allow a sure distinction by name among those who speak of them or handle their 

 lumber, or are called upon to supply seeds or plants. 



It was therefore a proper piece of foundation work, performed by the competent dendrologist 

 of the Division, Mr. George B. Sudworth, to establish a nomenclature of our arborescent llora, 

 both of vernacular and botanical names, which might form the basis of uniform usage. This 

 excellent, painstaking, and laborious work, analyzing the propriety and identity of over 0,000 

 names applied to our 500 species, has been published as Bulletin 14 of the Division, followed by 

 a more condensed list for general use as Bulletin 18. 



In addition, a select list of those species which we may for the present consider of immediate 

 economic value, with notes of their distribution, their uses, and their general silvicultural require- 

 ments, was also prepared and is reproduced in the appendix, giving an idea of the vast field open 

 for the student of forest biology. 



