FOREST INFLUENCES 21 



serve is to make easier the regulation of the work, and de- 

 termine the results of past management. 



Forestry and Labour 



The management and protection of the forest, the harvest- 

 ing of the products, the transport and manufacture of the 

 timber, offer wide scope for remunerative labour. 



The figures given in the census returns for Germany for 

 1895 show that 1 1 1,926 people had their chief employment, 

 and 47,410 their partial employment in forestry work. 

 Upon the former class, 240,640 family members were de- 

 pendent. In addition, 899,956 found their occupation in 

 the timber industry, and the families maintained by these 

 numbered 1,547,847 persons. 



Forestry finds work for fewer persons, relatively, than 

 agriculture, there being quite a marked difference. Thus 

 in Germany we find that arable farming employs one man 

 for 10-6 acres, but forestry requires only one for 308-8 acres. 1 



Even the smaller by-products of the woods, such as fruits 

 and branchwood for burning, have their importance. In 

 collecting them, occupation is given to those who are physi- 

 cally unable for more arduous work. The value of such 

 incidental crops will be appreciated from the fact that on a 

 certain conservancy in Germany the dealers pay the gatherers, 

 in a good year, the sum of 100,000 marks (^5,000) for 

 blaeberries alone. 



Influence of the Forest on Climate and Soil 



The beneficial effects of forests on the land in their 

 vicinity was formerly, and to some extent still is, somewhat 

 exaggerated^ or at least sought for in a wrong direction. To 

 the forest was ascribed a far-reaching action in altering the 

 temperature, regulating precipitations, and modifying the 



1 These figures refer only to persons permanently and directly en- 

 gaged in forest work, and do not take cognisance of the large number 

 temporarily employed. Forest land gives much more employment to 

 workmen than pastoral land. 



