64 Germany. 



8. Methods of Regulating Forest Management. 



Organized forest management was slower to de- 

 velop than silvicnltural methods. The first attempts 

 to bring order into the progress of fellings took the form 

 of dividing the whole area into a certain number of fell- 

 ing areas (12, 16, 20, 30, etc.), several ordinances con- 

 taining prescriptions to that effect dating from the 

 middle of the 15th and 17th centuries. 



It is doubtful whether the numbers of these areas 

 indicate years of rotation, in which case they could only 

 have applied to cj)ppice, or whether they indicate periods 

 of return in selection forest, although the historians seem 

 to jump to the former conclusion. The area division j 

 practiced by v. Langen in the Harz mountains (1745)^ 

 who prescribed the division of larger districts into fifty U 

 sixty, of smaller districts into twenty to thirty felling 

 areas, also leaves it doubtful, whether the areas coi 

 sponded to an assumed rotation or to a period of returi 



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

 survey existed, and its object was simply to localize th^ 

 cutting and provide orderly progress. The subdivisioi 

 was made in the mountain country by following thd 

 topography, valleys and ridges, while in the plain th^ 

 lines opened up for purposes of the chase (to set uj 

 nets), called Schneisen or Oestelle (rides), boundii 

 square areas called Jagen, Quadrat, Stallung, were use 

 for the limitation of the felling areas. Most common!] 

 however, largely due to absence of surveys, the order 

 division did not materialize, but existed only on paper" 



With more exact measuring of areas and with the con- 

 ception of rotation or longer periods of return, it was 

 recognized that the inequality of the sites or soil quality, 



