November, 1915 
15 
Big fires from little bonfires grow. Always have a fire pump and a bucket of water 
ready for emergencies 
FORESTRY AT HOME 
The Work to Do in Any Woodlot — Firelines and Fire Prevention—Profit in Clearings 
The Trees to Plant for Various Locations 
F. VON HOFFMAN 
F ORESTRY in theory is 
a science, in practice it 
becomes the art of raising 
trees in masses for com¬ 
mercial purposes. It en¬ 
deavors to outdo mother 
nature in growing more 
and better trees per given 
area in a shorter time than 
she herself can produce, if 
unaided by human hand. 
Wherever any other than 
the commercial aspect is 
kept in view in the raising 
and treatment of trees, as, 
for instance, for orna¬ 
mental purposes, the means 
and ways employed in such 
operation are representa¬ 
tive of the art of tree or 
arboriculture. 
From this we see that it 
is the aim pursued in the 
manipulation, and not the 
practical execution, which 
draws a distinct line be¬ 
tween forestry on the one 
hand and arboriculture on 
the other. 
Both of these may be 
profitably employed on a 
large or small scale. So- 
called ornamental forestry, 
as sometimes used by wri¬ 
ters, is a misnomer; it 
really does not exist in the 
true sense of the word, 
since commercial and orna¬ 
mental aims pursued in the 
In any timber tract fire lines are an absolute necessity. They can 
either be used for roads, as here, or planted in crops 
treatment of trees are not the 
same. We must strictly ad¬ 
here to forestry as the rais¬ 
ing of trees en masse for 
commercial purpose and ar¬ 
boriculture the treatment of 
individual trees for any pur¬ 
pose whatsoever. 
Let it be understood at the 
beginning that whatever gen¬ 
eral rules apply to a thou¬ 
sand-acre tract can also be 
employed in the management 
of one, five, ten or more 
acres. 
The first thing you should 
do is to protect your woods 
against the ravages of fire. 
This is a fundamental law, 
which should be kept in mind 
at all times. In fact, I can¬ 
not say enough in favor of 
an adequate and practically 
arranged protective plan 
against fire. On a larger 
tract I have in mind fire¬ 
lines 100' wide were cut 
wherever danger from fire 
was threatening. These 
again were in direct com¬ 
munication with the interior 
or lines of subdivisions of 
the tract; that is, the whole 
tract having been subdivided 
into parcels of twenty-five to 
thirty acres each, the divid¬ 
ing lines of these parcels 
were widened to required 
width, dependent upon local 
