PARK AND CEMETERY. 
21 I 
AESTHETIC FORESTRY.* 
“ The beautiful must be taken care of, the useful will 
take care of itself.” 
It is questionable whether thi remark of Goethe’s 
is as true to-day as it was in his time. It seems that 
we have entered upon a period when the aesthetic 
aspects of our surroundings occupy us almost to the 
extent to which the old Greeks wer.e accus omed to de- 
velop them. At least a momentum has been set up by 
the preachers of the beautiful which bids fair to carry 
us on in that direction with little effort. 
Forestry, as a useful occupation, has struggled hard, 
if not in vain, for recognition in this country, it is 
practically still an unknown art, and now we are already 
discussing aesthetic forestry. Forestry is in the first 
place not one of the aesthetic arts, but an industrial 
art, the object of which is similar to that of agriculture, 
namely the management of the soil for the production 
of wood crops. 
Yet the natural beauty, the sylvan charm and woodsy 
flavor of a forest suggest readily the aesthetic element 
which stimulates our artistic sense. 
Even to the forester, whose business it is to grow 
logs rather than trees, he whose idea of a forest is a mass 
of trees like a massed army, straight, tall, stripped of 
all unnecessary branches, cannot close his eyes entirely 
to the beauties of the object of his industrial activity. 
Hence, the foresters of Europe who manage forest prop- 
erties mainly or merely for the money revenue that may 
be derived from the sale of timber, have in many in- 
stances had an eye toward the utilization of the artistic 
elements at their disposal, at least in some corner of 
their districts. 
In England the artistic aspects of forestry have 
probably become more prominent than on the conti- 
nent and the forest management there has become more 
and more park management. But I believe it has been 
reserved to our continent to set aside woodlands for 
the practice of aesthetic forestry merely or mainly, even 
before industrial forestry has become an established 
art. 
The Metropolitan Park System of Boston comprises 
such large areas of native woodlands, which it is in- 
tended to leave as such, for pleasure purposes, that we 
may speak of them as forests, in which aesthetic for- 
estry is to be practiced. Not that there are not many 
other parks in this and the old countries in which groups 
and small areas of forest growth left to natural devel- 
opment are found ; not that many of the forest areas 
in Germany, for instance, are not used for identically 
the same purposes of recreation and artistic enjoyment 
incidentally ; not that we have not vast national parks 
where forestry might be practiced, — but at Boston a 
conscious attempt at making the aesthetic side para- 
mount on a large scale, is, I believe, for the first time 
made. 
A pleasure forest is, according to my notion, some- 
thing very different from a pleasure park. The objects 
are different and the methods of treatment as well. The 
park is to give pleasure by its artistic elements, the for- 
est by its natural elements. The park exhibits art with 
a superimposition of naturalness upon artificially crea- 
ted or preserved groups of trees ; the pleasure forest 
relies upon its ?iatural naturalness, with merely a help- 
ing hand towards artistic appearance. Hence, a let- 
alone policy is much more desirable in the latter than is 
possible to permit in the park. 
To let natu e take its course is here the principle. 
Yet nature is not aesthetic, she creates many things 
that are not beautiful and leaves undone many that man 
conceives as enhancing nature- beauty, for nature works 
without object, not even the object to please. Hence, 
the axe and saw are constantly in demand, here to re' 
move a stag-headed tree, that overshadows too much of 
the progeny, or an old decayed trunk that is not only 
ugly in its unsoundness but b-eeds the enemies of the 
healthy ; there a sprawling limb needs lopping, or even 
a healthy tree or group of trees must be invaded to free 
a rarer component of the forest which was being choked 
out by its thriftier competitors. 
Variety in composition of the forest pleases, yet the 
planting tool must be used with circumspection, and 
since “beauty must be true, good and adequate,” any 
new introductions must be true, good and adequate, 
that is to say, they must be true to the locality, indigen- 
ous, or at least not entirely inharmonious to the main 
body of woods, they must have elements of form, or 
other qualities which makes their introduction appear 
natural and desirable, and they must be adequate to the 
effect desired. If, for instance, coniferous growth is 
absent, some shade enduring spruces, firs or hemlocks 
may come in, singly and in groups, or where an opening 
exists the light-needing pines and larches may find a 
place; but merely for the sake of variety to plant all 
kinds in all places is not beautiful in the pleasure forest 
because not “true, good or adequate.” 
Finally, the rational manner of carrying on aesthetic 
forestry is, after all, that of the German industrial for- 
ester, which he practices in those places where a large 
community makes it desirable to provide for the use of 
his forest as a pleasure ground, namely, to use the for- 
est for both the material and the aesthetic interests, 
managing it for wood crops and revenue, with only the 
incidental reference to the pleasure it can afford, mak- 
ing it accessible by wagon and foot, building up, in 
rustic manner, springs and shady nooks, with resting 
places, and combining, as architecture usually does, the 
beautiful with the useful. 
The forester’s road system may be none the less per- 
fect from the purely utilitarian view because it meets 
the demand of art. The bypaths into the depths of 
sylvan recesses are not less useful because they may be 
made with due regard to convenient travel and pleasant 
windings, his thrifty young stock will present aspects of 
beauty as well as interest to the visitor not less delight- 
ful because of the frankly acknowledged purpose which 
it is finally to serve. 
Some of the picturesque effects of the crooked 
and gnarled specimens of oak and beech, to be 
but sure, the true forester will reduce to a minimum 
in the inspiring sublimity of lofty boles he will mb- 
stitute other effects not less artistic because the utilita- 
rian object is apparent. Finally, the beauty of a well- 
conducted forest management, with its system and order 
in the forest, as well as in the books, will appeal to the 
thoughtful visitor, and if he finds that all this can be 
had for nothing, may, with a financial benefit, by which 
his taxes are reduced, he will bless those aesthetic ideal- 
ists who, starting from an en'irely opposite point of 
view, have taught him to combine industrial and aesthetic 
art, pleasure and profit. 
* A paper read at the Minneapolis meeting of the American Park 
and Out-Door Art Association i y Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of Division of 
Forestry. 
