278 The Farm Woodlot 



At the time when the Eastern tribes invaded Germany, 

 that country was practically an unbroken forest and the 

 tribes living there were of a wandering character. The 

 needs of their civilization, or rather of their barbarism, 

 were few and their demands upon the forest practically 

 none. Their life was very much like that of our eastern 

 Indians. Their fuel was supplied by the dead wood on 

 the ground and they cut practically no standing timber. 



When these tribes settled down to village life in a per- 

 manent location, it became necessary to build substantial 

 houses of wood, and fields had to be cleared for agricultural 

 purposes. That meant the cutting away of the forest. 

 This opening thus started was necessarily steadily enlarged 

 from year to year. The villages grew in population and 

 needed larger areas for the raising of their food supplies. 

 With the demand for firewood for so many persons concen- 

 trated in one place for so long a time, the dead timber no 

 longer sufficed and the supply had to be drawn from the 

 standing timber. Moreover, the more complicated system 

 of village life was constantly developing new uses for wood. 

 And we must remember that wood fulfilled many more 

 purposes then than it does with us, for the use of the metals 

 was very little known. 



With the establishment of village life came the idea of 

 private ownership of land. The house with the surround- 

 ing garden was private property, the pasture was the com- 

 mon property of the village, but the forest was not as yet 

 considered as property at all. It was used by any one and 

 every one as a source of wood and as a hog pasture, for when 

 the forest was composed of beech and oak, the mast was con- 

 sidered of as much or even more importance than the wood. 



