160 Austria. 



reservations were made for the use of the mines and 

 furnaces in 1510 and 1515, these reservations com- 

 prising all forest lands within a given radius. The 

 balance was mostly divided among small owners, 

 whose unrestricted, unconservative exploitation con- 

 tinued into the latter half of the 19th century. 



In Styria, nearly one-half wooded and one-third 

 unproductive, a regulated management was attempt- 

 ed as early as 1572, and by subsequent forest ordi- 

 nances of 1695, 1721 and 1767 devastation was to 

 be checked. But the resistance of the peasants to the 

 regulations and the inefficiency of the forest service 

 were such that no substantial improvement resulted. 



In Galicia, unusually extensive rights of user in the 

 crown forests led to their devastation, and the at- 

 tempts to regulate the exercise of these rights by 

 ordinances in 1782 and 1802 were unsuccessful. 



The forest area along the coast of the Adriatic in 

 Istria and Dalmatia had furnished shiptimber even 

 to the ancients. The Venetians becoming the owners 

 of the country in the 15th century declared all forests 

 national property, reserved for shiptimber, and placed 

 them under management. They instituted a forest 

 service, regulated pasturing, and forbade clearing. 

 The oak coppice was to be cut in 8 to 12 year rotation, 

 with standards to be left for timber, etc. A reorganiz- 

 ation of this service with division into districts is 

 recorded in the 16th century, when Charles V, in 1520, 

 instituted a "forest college," i.e., administration. 

 But the district officers, capitani ai boschi, being under- 

 paid, carried on a nefarious trade on their own account, 

 and by 1775, the whole country was already ruined 



