902 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



oflicial statistics, the total area of German forests (not 

 including the forests of Alsace-Lorraine) is of 16.341,700 

 acres, of which 10,663,700 acres are State Forests, i. e., 

 forests belonging to v^irious States, and 5,677,900 acres 

 belonging to the Communes or to the Public Establish- 

 ments. These forests are composed, above all, of resin- 

 ous trees; Scotch Pine covers about half of the area 

 (exactly 47 per cent), and Spruce the fourth part of the 

 total area. Among deciduous trees, the Beech is by far 

 the most widely distributed. 



"Statistics show what are, for all classes of forests, the 

 areas occupied by timber of difTerent ages. Thus we can 

 state that there exists, in the bulk of German forests, 

 7,867,000 acres of timber of more than 60 years of age, 

 which may be 

 used for car- 

 penter's work, 

 / c, as lumber. 

 Half of this 

 area is covered 

 by Scotch Pine, 

 more than the 

 fourth part by 

 Beech, and a 

 little less than 

 the fifth part 

 by Spruce. 



"If, not con- 

 Elder ing the 

 bulk of Ger- 

 man forests, we 

 prefer only to 

 consider f o r - 

 ests belonging 

 to d i fif e r e n t 

 States, we find 

 that Domania- 

 Jes forests con- 

 tain 4,032,000 

 acres of timber 

 of more than 

 60 years of age. 

 To this quan- 

 tity may be 

 added 63,950 

 acres of Com- 

 m u n a 1 Pine 

 timber located 

 in the Grand- 

 Duche de Bade and in Wurteniberg. (Jn this basis, it is 

 easy to state what volume of lumber is immediately 

 available, in the State forests. This volume is at least 

 338 millions of cubic meters. More than the third 

 part is Scotch Pine which is excellent timber for lumber, 

 the fourth part is Beech which can be used for lumber, 

 and for railroad ties. Spruce and Y\x will produce three 

 millions of plain boards. Oak will also be welcomed by 

 our cabinet-makers and carpenters who fear the lack of 

 this raw material. 



L'nJt^rzcootl atij Uiidt'rzvuinl 



CONDITIO.M AFTER A B.\TTLK 



The destruction in this small patcli of woodland was caused by an attack by the Germans on a British 

 position. The Huns were driven back with heavy losses, but not before the concentrated tire from bnth 

 sides cut the trees in the fighting area to pieces. 



"The value in money of these 338 millions of cubic 

 meters of standing timber will amount to 5,400,000,000 

 francs ($1,000,000,000) if we take as a basis the sale 

 prices realized during the last ten years in the bulk of 

 German State forests. At the present rate, the value 

 will be double and more, and perhaps triple. The material 

 coming from the Communal Fir timber of the Grand- 

 Duche de Bade and Wurtemberg, represents eight mil- 

 lions of cubic meters able to produce 250 millions of 

 boards valued at the pre-war rate about 200,000,000 francs 

 ($36,700,000) on standing, and more than the triple at 

 the actual rates. 



"Plow many labor days will be necessary to market 

 those 350 millions of cubic meters of timber, and how 



many ye ars 

 will this work 

 take? Is the 

 w o r 1 d - w ide 

 market able to 

 absorb without 

 trouble this 

 enormous 

 quantity of 

 products ? 



"The first 

 thing to do is 

 to forbid or at 

 least to serious- 

 ly regulate and 

 reduce, during 

 the period of 

 r e a lization of 

 this material in 

 .S t a te forests, 

 any other fell- 

 ing of timber 

 on the territory 

 of the Empire, 

 in order to re- 

 serve the for- 

 es t r y la bor 

 a V a i 1 a ble in 

 Germany. This 

 point being 

 agreed upon, it 

 is easy to cal- 

 culate that to 

 fell and manu- 

 f a c t u r e the 

 stock of lumber from German Public forests, 100 mil- 

 lions of labor days, plus the indigenous labor, will be 

 necessary. To clean up this work in a year's time, this 

 means to get 330,000 workmen, and this seems impracti- 

 cable. If we prorate the felling for a period of five 

 years, a body of 50,000 foreign woodsmen in connection 

 with indigenous foresters, will be quite sufficient. 



"There is no doubt that timber thus spread over the 

 market could be easily absorbed. 



"Before the war, in fact, France had to buy in foreign 



