THE PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE IN FORESTRY 



549 



WHERE THE FOREST HAS BEEN PROPERLY CUT 



Note how the brush has been piled for burning or removal in order to prevent forest fires, how cordwood has been stacked and 



how sufficient seed trees have been left to develop a new growth. 



constantly a body of growing timber on the land. Thirty 

 years later Charles V. strengthened the forest laws by one 

 of 52 articles, and in this law again emphasizes the simple 

 fact: "The cut must not take more than the growth." 



Various laws followed, but, in keeping with affairs of 

 those times, things became lax, and in 1669 Colbert issued 

 his "Ordonnance," the most quoted forest law ever pro- 

 mulgated, after seven years of work by a select commis- 

 sion of over twenty men. Of this law the French forest 

 authority Huffel in 1907 says: "This law of 1669 is 

 primarily a law of organization and control;" and he also 

 states emphatically that it did not order or forbid any 

 particular method of silviculture. 



In the main the law required all cutting of the timber 

 to be done according to a definite plan, approved by 

 proper authority. The Revolution somewhat upset 

 things ; but the leaders promptly realized their mistakes ; 

 the law of 1827 practically returned France to the law 

 of 1669 and an effort to change in 1888 was rejected. 

 And the result is that France has plenty of good timber, 

 even if not as much and as good as the good foresters 

 Raux and others thinks she should have. 



The little Republic of Switzerland, dating back 600 

 years with an area little over a third of Pennsylvania and 

 about three million people tilling less than 20 per cent of 

 the land, has had a most instructive experience in 

 forestry. 



It is here where King Ludwig of France gave his 



daughter Hildegard, Abbess of Zurich, the famous Sihl 

 forest as early as the year 853, and where the city has 

 owned this forest over 1,000 years and has it today in just 

 as fine a condition as ever before, after cutting a yearly 

 crop of timber for over ten centuries. 



But Switzerland is a Union of 22 Cantons or very inde- 

 pendent states; the "Kantonli Geist" is a full equal of 

 our "States Rights" spirit ; it has poor mountain districts 

 as well as industrial towns ; in short it combines as wide 

 a range of conditions as our country and its development 

 of forestry and is therefore most interesting. 



Forestry in the Canton of Zurich, with its famous city 

 forest, was of the best for centuries ; forestry in the moun- 

 tain districts with people largely dependent on their few 

 goats and cattle was of the poorest ; Switzerland imported 

 firewood and timber. The forests belonged largely to the 

 villages and towns; the Union owned about 5 per cent, 

 and the villages claimed authority; and opposition to 

 change was strong. Like with us forestry education by 

 forest associations set to work and the constitution was 

 amended, and in 1876 the National Government assumed 

 authority over all forests in the mountains, passed a law 

 in which three things stand out : 



(1) The forests must not be divided in areas, or 



broken up by sales. 



(2) The volume of the cut must be prescribed and 



the cut follow a plan, which maintains a grow- 

 ing stock of trees. 



