408 Forestry Quarterly 



are still unexploited, being inaccessible, and 1,150,000 acres are 

 still open for sale, the proceeds averaging over $11 million, 

 which is set aside as a forestry fund. 



A division of work is made into ordinary and extraordinary 

 affairs carried on by two distinct departments. For 1909, the 

 expenditure was 12 cents per acre and the net revenue 15 cents, 

 the cut being in the neighborhood of 50 million feet B.M. Other 

 interesting details are given. 



Forests of Japan. American Forestry, June, 1915, pp. 693-711. 



In connection with the exposition at Bern 

 Swiss in 1914 the report on the forestry section 



History contains a brief reference to the develop- 



ment of forestry in Switzerland. 



According to Tacitus, 100 years after Christ, the country was 

 still densely wooded, and clearing was a necessity. The nearer 

 fields and woods became family property, the more distant woods 

 became communal property and some have remained so for more 

 than a thousand years. At Charlemagne's time, in the early part 

 of the ninth century, it became necessary to prevent clearing; 

 but in the fourteenth century, due to depopulation through pest 

 and disease, the forest area increased. Soon, however, clearing, 

 forest-destruction and forest-devastation proceeded again. The 

 movement for a better treatment of the woods began feebly some 

 hundred years ago, but two catastrophes by floods in 1834 and 

 in 1868 were needed to rouse the people to action. 



In 1843, the Swiss Forestry Association was formed; in 1855, 

 a forest school was inaugurated ; in the years 1858 to 1862, a re- 

 connaissance of the Alpine forest conditions was made ; and at 

 last, in 1874, the constitution was amended to give to the federal 

 government supervision over water and forest police in the high 

 Alps, which led, in 1876, to the federal law for carrying out this 

 provision. In 1897, the supervision was extended by popular 

 vote to the plains and all Switzerland. In 1902, new legislation 

 was formulated, including supervision over pastures. The ob- 

 ject of the law is to maintain the present forest area, especially 

 in endangered places, promote the creation of new protective 

 forest, correction of torrents, and dangerous avalanche districts, 

 encourage mapping and organizing of public forests, assisting 



