[iii] 



PREFACE 



I subsequently proposed that only those who could demonstrate a knowledge of botany, 

 the natural history of plants, mathematics, etc., may enter into forest administration, I 

 asked that schools like those in Prussia, in Russia, etc., be established to train students 

 able to carry out the duties of a well-informed forester. Now that my wishes are fulfilled, 

 I have in mind to publish a work that will be of some use to those who will take positions 

 in forest management. 



I could have included in my treatise more trees that have recently arrived from 

 North America. But besides the fact that the characteristics of their wood still aren't well 

 known, I didn't want to create a massive work with a price too high for those for whom it 

 was intended. At the moment in France we have only thirty-seven species of trees with 

 trunks greater than thirty feet tall; only eighteen of these make up the major part of our 

 forests. My treatise will include the natural history and depiction of ninety species. 



I've chosen the main format in 8°, because over the years there have been 

 complaints that works whose one and only purpose is practicality have almost always 

 become extravagant objects, 



[iv] 



