PERIODICAL LITERATURE 643 



fessional foresters. It contributes, however, to the salaries of the 

 cantonal forest officers ; supervises the use made of subsidies granted 

 to the cantons ; administers the federal forest law ; provides technical 

 instruction at the forest school at Zurich ; and directs the forest ex- 

 periment station. At the outbreak of the war construction was auto- 

 matically arrested and cutting materially decreased. After ten or 

 twelve months, however, the foreign demand for timber and the native 

 demand for wood fuel (due to the scarcity of coal), resulted in a 

 steadily increasing cut. In 1916 wood exports, which before the war 

 had been from -40.000,000 to 50,000,000 francs a year less than wood 

 imports, exceeded the latter by 68,000,000 francs. The increased cut 

 was accompanied by increased prices, fuel doubling and timber treb- 

 ling in value in three years or less. Little or no overcutting took place 

 in the public forests, but was more or less marked in the private for- 

 ests, where advantage was taken of the extraordinary demand to 

 improve the stands by the removal of many old reserves which before 

 the war could not be marketed profitably. Strict supervision was 

 exercised over all cuttings, a federal decree in 1917 requiring a permit 

 for all cuttings of 20 cubic meters or more and fixing a fine of from 

 10 to -40 francs per cubic meter for all cuttings made without a per- 

 mit. Moreover, measures were taken to maintain and if possible to 

 increase the future productivity of the forest. For instance, iii tile 

 Canton of Vaud, the number of inspectors was increased so that the 

 average area under the supervision of each was reduced from 7,300 

 to 4.000 hectares. This example should be followed by other canton^ 

 as a means of increasing production and of rendering Switzerland 

 independent of foreign supplies. An increase of only 1.1 cubic meters 

 per hectare in the annual growth of the (iOO.OOO hectares of communal 

 forests would be sufricient to wi])e out the present deficit of 700.000 

 cubic meters, but this can hardly be expected as long as the average 

 area under the supervision of a technical forester remains as high 

 as 8,570 hectares. S. T. D. 



Barbey. A. Lcs forcts Suisse pcndani la guerre. Bull. Trimest. Soc. For- 

 e=t:ere Franche-Comte et Belfort, i:i:4C-5L 1919. 



According to "X'' "The standard of working 



Working Plans plans in India leaves much to be desired." and 



/// India bad methods are very largely responsible for the 



poorness of plans. Some of the arguments pre- 



sentcfl are as follows : 



