HAS THE BLACK FOREST GONE? 



BY JOHN B. WOODS 



FIRST LIEUTENANT FOREST REGIMENT (lOTH RESERVE ENGINEERS) 



HAS (iernian\'s tani(iu> JUack Forest been ilc- 

 stroyed? Ha\e tlic wartime demands for tim- 

 ber been so great that, with her imports cut 

 off, (Germany has been compelled to cut down most of 

 the Black Forest? \ arimis reports recei\'e<l in the 

 United States 

 say a great 

 amount of the 

 t i m b e r has 

 been cut, but 

 these reports 

 can not now 

 be verified. 



A million 

 acres of wood- 

 land, divided 

 about equally 

 between the 

 states of Ba- 

 den and Wurt- 

 temberg, with 

 relatively poor 

 soil and fifty 

 inches of rain- 

 fall yearly, the 

 Black Forest 

 is a splendid 



Photoiiraph hy L'. 11'. Armstramj 



One of tliL' many sanatoria and hotels which are in close proximity to heavy timber 



wind through dense forests. 



over to ]iasturc and only fuel wood taken therefrom. 

 Init as time went o\\ the |K-tty lords took ste])s to 

 increase the timber ))roduction. Throughout the Sev- 

 enteenth Century they squabbled over plans of opera- 

 tion and agreed tinallx' that cutting for market should 



be permitted. 

 So during 

 the first half 

 of the Eigh- 

 teenth Cen- 

 tury they 

 workeil upon 

 the r i \- e r 

 Murg, improv- 

 ing it to the 

 end that logs 

 might be driv- 

 en down to the 

 broad expanse 

 of the Rhine 

 and thence to 

 cities of the 

 lowlands. And 

 then for fifty 

 years a timber 

 firm was given 

 free rein to 



BLACK FOREST KURHAUS 



and the roads to 



vhich 



example of natural woodland which could never be exploit the tree wealth, paying the owner the vast sum 

 anything else half so successfully. The hills are bold of six cents, or rather its equivalent, for each log taken 

 and their summits windswept, while tiny settlements away. Even then no roads had been constructed, for 

 nestle down in sheltered ravines beside foaming the streams furnished motive power for commerce, 

 creeks. Hardwood species are few in number, although and land traveling was accomplished upon foot along 

 the beech abounds to the extent of forming nearly a narrow paths. As late as 1858 a stone splash dam was 

 third of the timber wealth. But chiefly there are con- constructed at great expense to serve as reservoir for 

 ifers, fir, pine, spruce and larch, of which the first flood waters, and the builders stated plainly in their 

 named is by far most plentiful, the intertwining tops plans that it was to be for "Eternal Use." 

 spreading a cover through which daylight scarcel}' All this activity meant the development of a fixed 

 can penetrate to the neatly carpeted earth. Even in population within the limits of the forest, so logging 

 modern times these black aisles have been peopled villages grew up in sheltered and convenient locations 

 with all sorts of fearsome beings by superstitious peo- where the loggers might find home comforts after the 

 pie, tourists as well as peasants. day's work. And in the winter months when woods 

 In the early days there were no sightseers wander- work was at a standstill the menfolk toiled at home 

 ing through the woods. In the first place there were industries, weaving baskets, carving knick-knacks of 

 no roads over which they might wander and then the one kind and another, and busying themselves gen- 

 region was infested with robbers, some operating upon erally, while the children hung about listening to the 



their own accounts and others employed by the nu- 

 merous petty barons who owned the land. Eumber- 

 ing was an occupation beset with murder and thieving 

 so that it is no wonder that the workmen were rough 

 in every sense of the word. Before the time of using 

 wood for building pur])Oses to the extent that it pos- 

 sessed a commercial value the Black Forest was given 



fearsome stories of creatures who leaped from their 

 Daddies' imaginations to people the woods. 



.\nd then came the awakening of the German 

 commercial giant. The states which had been evolved 

 from scores of woodland principalities came to realize 

 that they were vitally concerned in the progress of the 

 Federation, so Baden and ^^'urttemberg set about 



481 ■ 



