Methods of Forest Organization. 69 



of dividing the whole area into a ceertain number of 

 felling areas (12, 16, 20, 30, etc.), several ordinances 

 dating from the middle of the 15th and 17th centuries 

 containing prescriptions to that effect. 



It is doubtful whether the numbers of these areas 

 indicate years of rotation, in which case they could 

 only have applied to coppice, or whether they indicate 

 periods of return in selection forest, although the 

 historians seem to jump to the former conclusion. 

 The area division practiced by v. Langen in the Harz 

 mountains (1745), who prescribed the division of 

 larger districts into fifty to sixty, of smaller districts 

 into twenty to thirty felling areas, also leaves it doubt- 

 ful, whether the areas corresponded to an assumed 

 rotation or to a period of return. 



At first, the division was not into equal areas, for 

 no survey existed, and its object was simply to localize 

 the cutting and provide orderly progress. The sub- 

 division was made in the mountain country by follow- 

 ing the topography, valleys and ridges, while in the 

 plain the lines opened up for purposes of the chase (to 

 set up nets), called Schneisen or Gestelle (rides), bound- 

 ing square areas called Jagen, Quadrat, Stallung, 

 were used for the limitation of the felling areas. Most 

 commonly, however, largely due to absence of sur- 

 veys, the ordered division did not materialize, but 

 existed only on paper. 



With more exact measuring of areas, and with the 

 conception of a rotation or longer periods of return, it 

 was recognized that the inequality of the sites or soil 

 qualities, especially in mountain districts, produced 

 very unequal felling budgets. To overcome this 



