GERMAN FOREST MANAGEMENT FOREST REGULATION. 241 



III. 1'ore.xt dixtricting. Division of forest into parcels or lots and aggregation of lots into blocks anil ranges. In tho 



plain, rectangular lots, divided hy cleared lines called rides r< iestell ), are customary : in hilly and mountainous 

 country division lines follow the configuration of toil, Differences of soil or chararter of growth within hits 

 give rise to formation of sublots. 



IV. I'ortxt yield niliiiil'wn (assessment). Ascertaining amounts of timber standing, rate of growth on various sites, 



determining capability of production and future yield in material and money. 



V. Determining plan of muua<jeme>it (working plans). General plan for all time; special plans lor period of ten to 

 twenty years. Determining length of rotation; amounts annually to he cut, designating lots to be cut, 

 with a view to obtaining favorable distribution of age classes; thinnings to he made; methods to bo used 

 in felling and cultures. 



METHODS OF FOREST REGULATION. 



Iii Prussia it was Frederick the Great who first ordered a regulated administration of the 

 Government forests soon after the beginning of his reign. The first simple prescriptions of 

 dividing the forests into equal areas and catting every year a proportionate area were followed up 

 with more elaborate ordinances, having in view a closer equalization of the amounts of material 

 harvested and revenues obtained, besides other considerations of management for continuity, until 

 finally the basis for present methods of regulation was reached in the ordinance of 1836, since 

 modified in its details, under which "the preservation, revision, and perfection of the work of 

 forest valuation and regulation " is carried on. 



The modus operandi, similar in principle in all Government forest administrations, is about as 

 follows: 



Let us assume that the Government has purchased ' a new forest district, comprising, say, 

 10,000 acres, the average size of the existing districts. The necessary surveys and blank maps, 

 as explained, have been made and the boundaries carefully established in the field, the division 

 into compartments or parcels, larger or smaller according to the need of a more or less intensive 

 management, have been noted on the maps and marked on the ground (the avenues perhaps 

 partially opened), and for the sake of satisfactory administration a number of the parcels have 

 been combined into subdistricts, "blocks," or ranges; and thus the first purely geometrical 

 basis for a rational administration has been established. Now the arithmetical basis is to be 

 ascertained. For this, in the first place, a general description of the district in its present 

 condition is desirable, parts of which, however, can be furnished only after the more thorough 

 measurements described later. Such a description recites all needful knowledge regarding the 

 extent, the manner of division, the boundaries, and the legal rights. Next follows a description 

 hi general terms of topography, climate, and soil conditions, and of the forest growth, being a 

 condensation of the special description by parcels. The manner of treatment hitherto, the market 

 conditions, current market prices, and usual wages are noted. Then, after recital of the processes 

 and methods by which the information in the following detail work has been obtained, the principles 

 adopted for the management and its motivation are stated, forming a general guide for the manager 

 for all time. 



These principles are formulated by a commission after sufficient general knowledge of the 

 condition of the district is obtained. In this important part of the general description uot only 

 the territorial partition of the district into compartments and blocks or ranges is determined, and 

 reasons given for it, but also the system of management for each block or parts of blocks, whether 



1 Prices for forest soil vary, of course, according to their location and condition, just as in our country. In 1849 

 Bavaria sold 27,000 acres of her .State forests at $68 per acre. In Prussia the Government has lately (1881-1887) paid 

 prices ranging from $5 to $60 per acre, and for a round 70,000 acres the price per acre was $21 average. These were 

 mostly devastated waste lauds in the northern plain. In Thuringia, where prices for wood and laud are higher, tho 

 price for forest land is from $20 to $60 and as high as $80. These prices do not, of course, include any timber growth, 

 the value of which, if present, is calculated according to well-known careful methods of determining "expectation 

 values." According to a calculation by Dr. J. Lehr, based on the net income as representing interest at a 3 per cent 

 rate, and assuming a ninety-year rotation of the forest growth for the entire German Empire, the forest land was 

 worth $25 per acre and the wood on it $156 per acre. 



H. Doc. 181 16 



