28o Forestry Quarterly. 



Periods of peace have permitted industrial activity and forests 

 have made way for farms. 



The fear of a fuel famine led to the planting of waste land 

 with rapid growers as early as 1716, but recurring wars had so 

 impoverished the State that these early attempts accomplished 

 little in the way of increasing the wood production. Willows, 

 poplars, alders and black locust were favorites with these early 

 planters. The rising price of fuel wood was artificially held in 

 check by ordinances fixing a legal price for wood, prohibiting 

 export and establishing public warehouses to control the mar- 

 ket. 



The practice of alternating farm crops with forests (Wald- 

 feldbau) was initiated about the middle of the i8th century to 

 stave off the wood famine without entirely withdrawing the 

 land from food production. The famine years, 1816-17 led to 

 the extension of this practice to lands formerly kept in forest. 

 The practice has persisted to the present day in many places, 

 although analysis frequently shows that it no longer pays. 



About the same time grazing and litter gathering grew in im- 

 portance to the detriment of the forests and the subdivision of 

 forests, previously held in common, further reduced their pro- 

 ductivity. Such treatment was given the accessible forests while 

 the adjacent hill forests remained untouched due to lack of 

 roads. Charcoal was the only product which could be brought 

 to market. 



The exchange of fertile forest land for the more sterile 

 farm lands was inaugurated in 1820, and has continued ever 

 since. At times it has made heavy inroads on the forest and 

 still heavier inroads have been prevented only by the most vigor- 

 ous protests of foresters. On the whole the cleared areas have 

 been largely replanted and agricultural production has been in- 

 creased by more intensive cultivation rather than by larger 

 areas. 



A number of early ordinances setting forth forest policy are 

 reprinted in this paper. 



Das Schicksal des Waldhodcns in Hessen. Silva. Aug. 191 1. 265-7; 

 276-8; 283-4. 



