SOME HISTORY 215 



Thus, in the Sihlwald, a tract of forest which has been 

 in possession of the city of Zurich for about a thousand 

 years, the amount of wood to be cut each year and the 

 proper way of cutting it were determined by competent 

 men more than six hundred years ago. And so well was 

 this done, and so carefully was their plan followed out, 

 that this forest all this time has furnished every year the 

 fixed amount of timber, and is to-day in better condition 

 (and, therefore, better able to supply wood) than at any 

 time before. 



Numerous laws and orders, issued from the twelfth cen- 

 tury forward by communities, towns, and governments, 

 regulated every feature of forest management and use. 

 The cutting, shipping, and selling of timber, the burning 

 of charcoal, the peeling of tan bark, the gathering of rosin, 

 the pasturing of cattle and hogs, and even the keeping of 

 bees and gathering of wild honey, which in those days was 

 a very important business in many districts, were all care- 

 fully prescribed, to avoid dispute, and still more to prevent 

 " the killing of the goose that lays the golden egg." 



As with laws in all times and countries, many were 

 unjust and oppressive; and when the French Revolution 

 freed the people of Europe from the fetters of medieval 

 ignorance, sophistry, and brutality, there was a reaction 

 against the forest laws, the real worth of which was 

 always least understood by the very people most benefited 

 by them. 



