36 Government Forestry Abroad. [220 



The passage of the federal forest law was followed 

 almost everywhere immediately by the appointment 

 of trained forest officers, and all the cantons whose 

 forest legislation was defective amended or completed 

 it. At the same time federal and cantonal regula- 

 tions bearing on watercourses were being revised. 



" Oar forest laws," Prof. Landolt goes on, "are intended to work 

 more through instruction, good example and encouragement than 

 by severe regulations. This method is somewhat slower than one 

 which should involve more drastic measures, but the results achieved 

 are the more useful and lasting. When forest proprietors do some- 

 thing because they are convinced of its utility, it is done well and 

 with an eye to the future; but what they do under compulsion is 

 done carelessly and neglected at the first opportunity. What they 

 have come to learn in this way, and have recognized as good, will 

 be carried out, and that better and better from year to year. 



" All our laws require the same treatment for the forests of the 

 State, the communes and public institutions. Still, progress in the 

 treatment of State forests and those of the larger communes is more 

 rapid than in those of corporations and the smaller villages. In the 

 first more money is available, the forest officers are better trained, 

 and there is a more intelligent grasp of the situation. But still the 

 condition of the smaller forests is now satisfactory. 



"The oversight of private forests is less strict. Their owners may 

 not reduce the area of their wood lands without the consent of the 

 cantonal government, must plant up the land cut over which is 

 without natural growth, and are bound to take proper care of the 

 growing stock, but they are not held to a conservative management. 



"The regulations which bear upon the protection of wood lands, 

 and the harmful external influences to which they are exposed, are 

 equally binding upon them; but in return they enjoy the protection 

 which the law provides for the forest. 



"In protection forests, on the other hand, the timber that may 

 be cut by private owners is marked by government officers, so that 

 reckless lumbering may be prevented. The regulations which look 

 to the formation of new protection forests must also be conformed 

 to by private proprietors, or they must allow themselves to be 

 expropriated. In these matters the Confederation and the cantons 

 work in unison. The consent of the Federal Assembly is necessary 

 to the clearing of private land in protection forests." 



