A MANUAL FOR THE GUIDANCE OF FORESTRY BY JAMES W. TOUMEY, M. S., M. A. Director of the Forest School and Professor of Silviculture, Yale University FIRST EDITION FIRST THOUSAND NEW YORK JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED ent. PREFACE THE need of a handbook on seeding and planting in forest practice applicable to conditions in the United States is apparWith the exception of a few pamphlets widely scattered through the publications of the National Forest Service and the forestry departments of several states and recent articles in the Forestry Quarterly and in the Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, but little of trustworthy character dealing with this important subject has yet appeared in this country. The forestry literature of Europe, however, is particularly rich in this field. Although European methods cannot be blindly followed in forestry practice in the United States, cultural principles apply alike in this country and Europe. For this reason foreign literature, particularly that of Germany and France, has been freely drawn upon for the principles underlying the practice. An effort has been made to explain the why as well as the how. For this reason the fundamental principles that control success and failure in the economic production of nursery stock and the artificial regeneration of forests are emphasized as well as the details of practice. The practitioner must have a clear appreciation of underlying principles or he cannot safely be trusted to direct the details of nursery practice, seeding and planting. He must have a broad knowledge of methods and tools in order that he may attain successful regeneration at the least cost. The manual is necessarily incomplete because the experience in the United States in this field is very limited; furthermore, the country presents such varied conditions of climate and soil that the details of nursery practice, seeding and planting, must necessarily differ in one locality as compared with another. Although the author appreciates that criticism is invited by the description of many methods and tools not used in the United States, he believes that they should be known where experience has fully demonstrated their usefulness elsewhere and there is a possibility that they may be used advantageously under special conditions in this country. No method should be blindly followed. The practitioner should have a broad knowledge of many methods. He should |