be done, and conversant with what has been done and with what results, under similar circumstances, in other districts and provinces.” The State Forester has also to think of climatic considerations and the permanent supply of timber or what the French call bois de service, for the use of public departments, considerations which do not necessarily enter into the calculations of private individuals—conserving natural forests or forming plantations. Mr.Brandis, the Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India, on a recent occasion said—“Forest administration in India has two main objects: 1st. The formation, protection, and gradual improvement of the public forest domains; 2nd, Consistently with the steady improvement of the forests, to make as much timber, wood, and other forest produce available as possible for the requirements of the country and for export trade, and thereby to produce from these domains as large a surplus revenue as is compatible with the maintenance and increase of their productive powers.” Perhaps no better general definition of the aim and object of State forest administration could be given. An argument often used against State forests and planting, and State Forest Departments, is that, if profitable, private individuals may be trusted to do it in their own interests. The fallacy of this argument has been repeatedly exposed by writers on forest subjects, and very clearly in a brochure entitled “L'Amen-agement des Forets,” by A. Puton, Inspector of Forests and Professor of Forest Legislation at the Forest School at Nancy. He shows that whilst coppice woods, with a rotation of only 20 years, yield 2 ½ cubic metres valued at 20 francs (16s. 8d.) per hectar (2 ½ English acres) per annum, timber forests, with a rotation of 120 years, yield 5 ¾ cubic metres valued at 81 francs (67s. 6d.) per hectar per annum; but on the other hand, owing to the comparatively small amount of capital in soil and timber required under the former, as compared with the latter system, the return by the former is four and a-half per cent. against only two per cent. by the latter. Hence it is found that almost all private proprietors in France and elsewhere adopt the former system, and grow coppice woods, which give a quicker and larger money return, and were it not for the State and Communal forests managed under the latter system producing a greater volume of timber, and of large dimensions, the supply for naval purposes and public works would fall far short of the demand, whilst climatic considerations would be entirely overlooked. Having thus explained as briefly as possible what forestry, and particularly State forestry, really means, I proceed to state how operations are initiated and carried out in Germany and France—the countries in which the science is furthest advanced—the general principles being applicable to all countries and climates, for, as the Inspector-General of Forests in India writes in his preface to the Report on Forest Management