34 Government Forestry Abroad. [218 



"The appointment of State forest officers is to be regarded as the 

 beginning of regular forest management. Great numbers of forest 

 regulations bearing on the most various subjects tree planting 

 among others had been promulgated in former centuries. They 

 had been often renewed, but without forest officers they could not 

 be enforced. 



" Forest regulations were now made by Bern, Zurich, and for the 

 Jura by the bishop of Basel, who also had appointed forest officers. 



" The treatment of the State and of a few of the larger communal 

 forests made very satisfactory progress until 1798. Then came the 

 revolution, and with it war and times of great disturbance and 

 political excitement. It is true that even then forestry was never 

 wholly neglected; but the progress made, where it existed at all, 

 was of very minor importance. But as times grew quieter and the 

 condition of the government more orderly, the interest in forest 

 matters .revived; the cantons Neuenburg, Freiburg, Solothurn and 

 Aargau passed forest laws of more or less comprehensive scope, 

 appointed forest officers, and in general sought to promote the 

 cause of forestry. 



' Until about 1830 forestry in the less mountainous parts of 

 Switzerland developed slowly, but still in a satisfactory manner. 

 New laws appeared, the number of forest officers increased, the 

 wood lands of communes and public institutions attracted more 

 attention, and the future reforesting of the country became gradu- 

 ally the centre of greater effort. In public forests other than those 

 of the State, progress was in general slow, although a considerable 

 number of forest surveys were carried out. 



"The mountain forests, however, with few exceptions, were in 

 complete disorder. But the following years brought new life not 

 only into politics, but also into national economies and the status of 

 the forest, which last was materially improved by the floods which 

 spread in 1834 over the greater part of the Alps. The damage which 

 they caused was so severe that the philanthropic and scientific soci- 

 eties set themselves the task of searching out the cause of inunda- 

 tions, which became more frequent as time went on. They concluded 

 that it was to be found largely in the improvident destruction of the 

 mountain forests. To the fear of a wood famine, which had hitherto 

 been the chief incentive to the advancement of forestry, there was 

 now added another, which, if not wholly new, still had been for- 

 merly little insisted on. It was the influence of forests on rainfall 

 and the phenomena of nature in general. The societies did not fail 

 to direct attention to this question, and with excellent result. The 

 less mountainous cantons with imperfect legislation made new laws 

 or amended and completed the old ones, saw to the appointment of 



