GERMANY. 



It is generally conceded that both the science and 

 art of forestry are most thoroughly developed and 

 most intensively applied throughout Germany. It 

 must, however, not be understood that perfection 

 has been reached anywhere in the practical applica- 

 tion of the art, or that the science, which like that 

 of medicine has been largely a growth of empiricism, 

 is in all parts safely based; nor are definitely settled 

 forest policies so entrenched, that they have become 

 immutable. On the contrary, there are still mis- 

 managed and unmanaged woods to be found, mainly 

 those in the hands of farmers and other private 

 owners; there are still even in well managed forests 



Besides a dozen or more earlier histories of forestry in Germany, some ot 

 which date back to the beginning of the 19th century, there are two excellent 

 modern compilations, namely : 



Geschichte des Waldeige?ithums, der Waldivirtschaft mid Forstwissenschaft 

 in Deutschland, by August Bernhardt, 1872-75, 3 Vols., 1032 pp., a classic, 

 which treats especially extensively of political and economic questions having a 

 bearing on the development of forestry; and 



Handbitch der Forst und Jagdgeschichte Deutschlands, by Adam Schwap- 

 pach, 1886, 2 Vols., 892 pp., which appeared as a second edition of Bernhardt's 

 history, abridging the political history and expanding the forestry part. This 

 volume has been mainly followed in the following presentation of the subject. 

 In condensed form this history is also to be found in Lorey's Handbuch der 

 Forstivissenschaft, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 113-210. 



In Schwappach's history a full list of original sources is enumerated. These 

 are, for the oldest period, Roman writings, which are unreliable; the laws of the 

 various German tribes ; the laws of kings (Capitularia) ; the laws of villages and 

 other territorial districts ; " Weisthiimer" (judgments) ; inventories of properties 

 (especially of churches and cloisters); documents of business transactions and 

 chronicles. For the time after the Middle ages the most important source is 

 found in the Forest Ordinances of princes and other forest owners ; forest laws ; 

 police orders ; business documents, and finally special literature. 



