Bernhard Fernow - A Brief History of Forestry.

It has been a great surprise and also a great gratification to the author to see the first edition of this volume exhausted within less than two years since its appearance in complete form. The gratification has come especially because of the opportunity thus afforded of revision, improvement in style, and correction of the many inaccuracies which the first edition contained, excusable only by the manner in which (as explained in the preface of the first edition) the volume had come into existence.

Only in a few cases has it seemed desirable to expand, since the object of the book is not to be complete, but to give as briefly as possible an oversight over a rather large field. The chapter on France has, however, been entirely re-written and considerably enlarged to meet the just criticisms of reviewers; the excellent work of Huffel, full of historical data, which was not available when the first edition was printed, permitting a clearer and fuller statement to be made.

As long as history is in the making, a book of this kind can hardly be brought up to date. This should especially be kept in mind by the reader in regard to the statistics brought in. Since these are only to serve in general to show the magnitude of the interests involved, they may without damage be only approximately accurate, and even of older date.

Some of the chapters have been submitted for criticism and corrections to correspondents in the various countries to which they refer. For the kindly assistance of these friends thanks is due from the author.

This publication is the result of a series of 25 lectures which the writer was invited to deliver before the students of forestry in Yale University as a part of their regular course of instruction during the session of 1904.

Circumstances made it desirable, in the absence of any existing textbooks on the subject, to print at once, for the sake of ready reference, the substance of the lectures while they were being delivered.

This statement of the manner in which the book came into existence will explain and, it is hoped, excuse the crudities of style, which has been also hampered by the necessity of condensation.

The main object was to bring together the information, now scattered and mostly inaccessible to English or American readers: the style has been sacrificed to brevity; it is a book of expanded lecture notes.

In the nature of the case the book does not lay claim to any originality except in the manner of presentation, being merely a compilation of facts gathered mostly from other compilations, official documents and journals.

For none of the countries discussed does a complete work on the history of forests and forestry exist, excepting in the case of Germany, which can boast of a number of comprehensive works on the subject. It was, therefore, possible to treat that country more in extenso . Moreover, it appeared desirable to enlarge upon the history of that country, since it is pre-eminently in the lead in forestry matters and has passed through all the stages of development of forest policies and forestry practice, which, with more or less variations must be repeated in other countries.

Especially the growth of the technical science and art of forestry, which has been developed in Germany for a longer time and to a more refined degree than in other countries, has been elaborated in the chapter relating to that country.

For some of the other countries available sources of information were quite limited. The writer believes, however, that for the purpose of this brief statement the data collected will be found sufficient.

In order to make conditions existing in the different countries and their causes more readily understood it appeared desirable to give very brief historic references to their political and economic development and also brief statements of their general physical conditions.

Present conditions of forest policy and forest administration have sometimes been enlarged upon beyond the requirements of historical treatment.

The value of studying the historical development of an economic subject or of a technical art which, like forestry, relies to a large extent upon empiricism, lies in the fact that it brings before us, in proper perspective, accumulated experience, and enables us to analyze cause and effect, whereby we may learn to appreciate the reasons for present conditions and the possibilities for rational advancement.

If there be one philosophy more readily derivable than another from the study of the history of forestry it is that history repeats itself. The same policies and the same methods which we hear propounded to-day have at some other time been propounded and tried elsewhere: we can study the results, broadening our judgment and thereby avoid the mistakes of others.

Nowhere is the record of experience and the historic method of study of more value than in an empiric art like forestry, in which it takes decades, a lifetime, nay a century to see the final effects of operations.

Such study, if properly pursued, tends to free the mind from many foolish prejudices and particularly from an unreasonable partiality for our own country and its customs and methods merely because they are our own, substituting the proper patriotism, which applies the best knowledge, wherever found, to our own necessities.

Forestry is an art born of necessity, as opposed to arts of convenience and of pleasure. Only when a reduction in the natural supplies of forest products under the demands of civilization, necessitates a husbanding of supplies or necessitates the application of art or skill or knowledge in securing a reproduction, or when unfavorable conditions of soil or climate induced by forest destruction make themselves felt does the art of forestry make its appearance. Hence its beginnings occur in different places at different times and its development proceeds at different paces.

In the one country, owing to economic development, the need of an intensive forest management and of strict forest policies may have arrived, while in another, rough exploitation and wasteful practices are still natural and practically unavoidable. And such differences, as we shall see, may even exist in the different parts of the same country.

The origin and growth of the art, then, is dependent on economic and cultural conditions, on various economic development and on elements of environment. The development of the art can only be understood and appreciated through the knowledge of such environment, of such other developments as of agriculture, of industries, of means of transportation, of civilization generally.

Hence we find, for instance, that England, located so as to be accessible by sea from all points of the compass and with oceanic shipping well developed, can apparently dispense with serious consideration of the forest supply question.

Again, we find that more than a century ago fear of a timber famine agitated not only the dense populations of many European countries, but even the scanty population of the United States, in spite of the natural forest wealth which is still supplying us; and not without good reason, for at that time wood was the only fuel and rivers the only means of transportation; hence local scarcity was to be feared and was not unfrequently experienced when accessible forest areas had been exploited. Railroad and canal development and the use of coal for fuel changed this condition on both continents. Now, with improved means of transportation by land and by sea, the questions of wood supply and of forestry development, which at one time were of very local concern, have become world questions, and he who proposes to discuss intelligently forest conditions and forestry movement in one country must understand what is going on in other countries.