Forest Utilization. 79 



garding the time by which the removal of the 

 wood from the felling area was to be finished (May 

 to June). 



Means of transportation were poor up to the end 

 of the period; snow, as in the United States, was in 

 the Northern country the main reliance for moving 

 the wood. River driving, both with, and without 

 rafts was well organized; various systems of log- 

 slides were developed to a considerable extent ; in 

 one place even an iron pipe, 900 feet in length, is re- 

 ported to have been used in such capacity. 



Originally, the consumer cut his own wood, but in 

 the middle of the 17th century special wood-choppers 

 appear to have been employed, for, in 1650, mention 

 is made in Saxony of men, who, under oath to secure 

 honest service, were organized for the exploitation 

 of the different classes of wood. A system of jobbers 

 came into existence about this time, something like 

 the logging bosses in the United States (Holzmeister) 

 who were responsible for the execution of the logging 

 job. The organization of wood-choppers went so far 

 that, in 1718, we find in the Harz mountains mention 

 of an Accident Insurance and Mutual Charity Associ- 

 ation among them. 



The sale of wood was at first carried on in the house; 

 later it became customary to indicate in the forest the 

 trees to be cut or the area from which they should be 

 cut by the purchaser, and finally they we're felled by 

 the employes of the owner. For a long time, persisting 

 into the 18th century, the sale was by area, and this 

 method developed the necessity of surveying; at the 

 same time, however, sales by the tree and by wood 



