658 Forestry Quarterly 



suffered severe damage and sometimes utter destruction, and in 

 the occupied country all forest administration has, of course, prac- 

 tically ceased to exist. It will take many years to recover the 

 lost ground. 



From all reports, it is evident that the forests in the war zone 

 have played no subordinate role in the warfare, being used for 

 cover of movements, for barricades and breastworks, and, on the 

 other hand, having been razed to prevent such use by the other 

 party. Artillery tire has destroyed or devastated many an old 

 stand, and common fire many a coppice growth or young age-class. 

 Recovery, as in all forestry work, will be slow — slower than that 

 of the ruined towns and cities. 



In the end, the worst hit, as in every other respect, will be 

 Germany. While this country comes next to Great Britain in 

 the size of its wood imports with 150 million dollars, it exports 

 manufactured wood materials to the extent of 35 or 40 millions 

 of dollars, so that we may assume that the wood industries re- 

 duced in their activity to strictly home needs can probably be 

 supplied by the home product, with such additions as can be 

 secured from Sweden and Austria. But the fine machinery of 

 forest administrations will probably be very considerably damaged 

 through the disturbance of its administrative personnel and 

 woods labor. When we hear that Oberforstmeister Fricke, 

 Director of the Forest Academy of ]\Iiinden, fell in battle, we can 

 assume that the majority of administrative officers will have taken 

 the field. Indeed, such is the conception of duty to defend 

 the fatherland that probably the whole service is dismantled 

 and left in the hands of those Oberforster and Forster whose 

 age prevents their joining the army. The universities are closed, 

 and there is little doubt, the forest schools are in the same con- 

 dition. 



In Germany, different from France, the Forest Service is not 

 directly related to the military organization, except that aspirants 

 for the lower service fulfil their regular military duties in special 

 battalions — Jaegerbattalione, where they receive instruction in 

 forestry matters and are developed as sharpshooters. In the 

 higher service there is only a group limited to 75 officers who, 

 while pursuing their regular forestry education are under military 

 organization as despatch bearers, an institution dating from the 

 time of Frederick the Great — the reitende Feldjdger Korps. 



