Again, the still poorly settled and originally heavily timbered countries of the Scandinavian peninsula and the vast empire of Russia are still heavy exploiters of forest products and are only just beginning to feel the drain on their forest resources; while the United States, with as much forest wealth as Russia, but with a much more intensive industrial development, has managed to reach the stage of need for a conservative forest policy in a shorter time.
From each of the European countries we learn something helpful towards inaugurating such policies, and while, owing to a different historical background and to different political and social conditions, none of their administrative methods and measures may appeal to us, the principles underlying them as well as those underlying their silvicultural methods remain the same; they are applicable everywhere, and can best be recognized and studied in the history of their development.
_Waldgeschichte des Alterthums_, by AUGUST SEIDENSTICKER, 1886, 2 vols., pp. 863, is a most painstaking compilation from original sources of notes regarding the forest conditions and the knowledge of trees, forests and forestry among the ancients. Contains also a full bibliography.
_Die Waldwirthschaft der Rœmer_, by J. TRURIG, collects the knowledge, especially of arboriculture and silviculture, possessed by the Romans.
_Forstwissenschaftliche Leistungen der Altgriechen_, by Dr. CHLOROS, in Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1885, pp. 8.
_Archeologia forestale, Dell’ antica storia e giurisprudenza forestale in Italia_, by A. DI BERENGER, 1859.
The forest was undoubtedly the earliest home of mankind, its edible products forming its principal value. Its wild animals developed the hunter, the chase first furnishing means of subsistence and then exhilaration and pleasure. Next, it was the mast and, in its openings, the pasture which gave to the forest its value for the herder, and only last, with the development into settled communities and more highly civilized conditions of life, did the wood product become its main contribution toward that civilization. Finally, in the refinement of cultural conditions in densely settled countries is added its influence on soil, climate and water conditions.