1921.] 



Notices of Books. 



1177 



in America are of particular interest in view of the problems connected there- 

 with in this country. 



The book is admirably arranged and profusely illustrated with photographs, 

 and is provided with an excellent and very complete index. The inclusion of 

 a table of the scientific and common names for timbers dealt with, and the use 

 in the text of the scientific names wherever confusion might arise, is a practice 

 worthy of more frequent adoption in such works. — 0. J. S. 



Forest Management.— (A. S. Recknagel and John Bentley. Jr. 

 London: Chapman & Hall Limited. First Edition 1910, Price 12s.6d.net.) 

 This book purports to provide the American reader with a condensed and not 

 too technical account of the subjects comprised under the head of Forest 

 Management. 



The subject matter is treated under the following main heads : — 

 Forest Mensuration. 



Forest Organisation (including Working Plans). 

 Forest Finance. 

 Forest Administration. 



One hundred and twenty-two pages, or rather more than half the book, 

 deal with the subject of Forest Mensuration. Forest Organisation occupies 

 fifty-five pages, the remaining sections being more briefly dealt with. 



The long section on Forest Mensuration covers much the same ground as 

 the corresponding chapters in Vol. Ill of Schlich's Manual of Forestry, but 

 in the American work much of the space is devoted to such subjects as area 

 surveys, log rules, and timber estimations on a large scale, which are of no 

 importance to most students in this country. 



Chapters X and XI give a short but useful account of methods of 

 determining the increment of single trees and woods. We are bound to point 

 out, however, that on page 116 the determination of the volume of permanent 

 sample plots by the arithmetical mean sample tree method is open to criticism 

 on the ground that other and more accurate methods (e.g., those of Hartig 

 and Urich) have long been employed by the Research Stations in Europe. 



The important subject of Working Plans is somewhat cursorily dealt with 

 in Chapter XIV, but the outline provided gives an excellent idea of the 

 information required for these plans. 



British students will find Chapter XV on Forest Finance most useful as an 

 introduction to a subject which is often found troublesome. In particular, 

 the U.S.A. Government's detailed instructions for calculating fire damages 

 (on pages 201 to 208) provide interesting illustrations of the practical value 

 of compound interest formulae in general forestry. The final chapter deals 

 briefly with the subject of Administration. We fancy that most British 

 foresters will be surprised by the statement on page 217 that " while the 

 average executive unit in Europe is 6,000 acres, the average unit in the 

 United States National Forests is no less than 1,022.200 acres.*' Any except 

 the most extensive system of working must be out of the question with units 

 of this size. 



The book is well printed and provided with an Appendix containing the 

 usual cdmpound interest tables and other data; there is also an excellent index. 



The book may be recommended to students in this country who wish to 

 obtain a general survey of the subject of Forest Management before taking 

 the more advanced courses given at the Universities. — W. H. G. 



