304 
ECONOMY OF THE FOREST. 
or from the roots of trees which have been felled for human 
purposes; hut their growth has been controlled, in a variety 
of ways, by man and by domestic animals, and they always 
present more or less of an artificial character and arrangement. 
Both they and planted forests, which, though certainly not 
few, are of recent date in Europe, demand, as well for protec¬ 
tion as for promotion of growth, a treatment different in some 
respects from that which would be suited to the character and 
wants of the virgin wood. 
On this latter branch of the subject, experience and obser¬ 
vation have not yet collected a sufficient stock of facts to serve 
for the construction of a complete system of sylviculture ; but 
the management of the forest as it exists in France—the dif¬ 
ferent zones and climates of which country present many points 
of analogy with those of the United States and some of the 
British colonies—has been carefully studied, and several man¬ 
uals of practice have been prepared for the foresters of that 
empire. I believe the best of these is the Cours Elementaire 
de Culture des Bois cree d VEcole Forestiere de Fancy, par 
M. Lorentz , complete et publie pa/r A. Parade , with a supple¬ 
ment under the title of Cours d’ Amenagement des Forets , par 
Henri Fanquette. The Etudes sur V Economie Forestiere , par 
Jules Clave , which I have often quoted, presents a great num¬ 
ber of interesting views on this subject, and well deserves to 
be translated for the use of the English and American reader ; 
but it is not designed as a practical guide, and it does not 
profess to be sufficiently specific in its details to serve that 
purpose. Notwithstanding the difference of conditions be¬ 
tween the aboriginal and the trained forest, the judicious 
observer who aims at the preservation of the former will reap 
much instruction from the treatises I have cited, and I believe 
he will be convinced that the sooner a natural wood is brought 
into the state of an artificially regulated one, the better it is 
for all the multiplied interests which depend on the wise ad¬ 
ministration of this branch of public economy.* 
* “ In America,” says Clave (p. 124, 125), “ where there is a vast ex¬ 
tent of land almost without pecuniary value, but where labor is dear and 
