HAS THE BLACK FOREST GONE? 



BY JOHN B. WOODS 



FIRST LIEUTENANT FOREST REGIMENT (lOTH RESERVE ENGINEERS) 



HAS Germany's famous Black Forest been de- 

 stroyed? Have the wartime demands for tim- 

 ber been so great that, with her imports cut 

 off. Ciermany has been compelled to cut down most of 

 the Black Forest? Various reports received in the 

 United States 



Photograph by C. IV. Armstrong 



One of the many sanatoria and hotels which are in close proximity to heavy timber and the roads to which 



wind through dense forests. 



say a great 

 amount of the 

 timber has 

 been cut, but 

 these reports 

 can not now 

 be verified. 



A million 

 acres of wood- 

 land, divided 

 about equally 

 between the 

 states of Ba- 

 den and Wurt- 

 temberg, with 

 relatively poor 

 soil and fifty 

 inches of rain- 

 fall yearly, the 

 Black Forest 

 is a splendid 

 example of natural woodland which could never be 

 anything else half so successfully. The hills are bold 

 and their summits windswept, while tiny settlements 

 nestle down in sheltered ravines beside foaming 

 creeks. Hardwood species are few in number, although 

 the beech abounds to the extent of forming nearly a 

 third of the timber wealth. But chiefly there are con- 

 ifers, fir, pine, spruce and larch, of which the first 

 named is by far most plentiful, the intertwining tops 

 spreading a cover through which daylight scarcely 

 can penetrate to the neatly carpeted earth. Even in 

 modern times these black aisles have been peopled 

 with all sorts of fearsome beings by superstitious peo- 

 ple, tourists as well as peasants. 



In the early days there were no sightseers wander- 

 ing through the woods. In the first place there were 

 no roads over which they might wander and then the 

 region was infested with robbers, some operating upon 

 their own accounts and others employed by the nu- 

 merous petty barons who owned the land. Lumber- 

 ing was an occupation beset with murder and thieving 

 so that it is no wonder that the workmen were rough 

 in every sense of the word. Before the time of using 

 wood for building purposes to the extent that it pos- 

 sessed a commercial value the Black Forest was given 



BLACK FOREST KURHAUS 



over to pasture and only fuel wood taken therefrom, 

 but as time went on the petty lords took steps to 

 increase the timber production. Throughout the Sev- 

 enteenth Century they squabbled over plans of opera- 

 tion and agreed finally that cutting for market should 



be permitted. 

 So during 

 the first half 

 of the Eigh- 

 teenth Cen- 

 tury they 

 worked upon 

 the river 

 Murg, improv- 

 ing it to the 

 end that logs 

 might be driv- 

 en down to the 

 broad expanse 

 of the Rhine 

 and thence to 

 cities of the 

 lowlands. And 

 then for fifty 

 years a timber 

 firm was given 

 free rein to 

 e.\ploit the tree wealth, paying the owner the vast sum 

 of six cents, or rather its equivalent, for each log taken 

 away. Even then no roads had been constructed, for 

 the streams furnished motive power for commerce, 

 and land traveling was accomplished upon foot along 

 narrow paths. As late as 1858 a stone splash dam was 

 constructed at great expense to serve as reservoir for 

 flood waters, and the builders stated plainly in their 

 plans that it was to be for "Eternal Use." 



All this activity meant the development of a fixed 

 population within the limits of the forest, so logging 

 villages grew up in sheltered and convenient locations 

 where the loggers might find home comforts after the 

 day's work. And in the winter months when woods 

 work was at a standstill the menfolk toiled at home 

 industries, weaving baskets, tarving knick-knacks of 

 one kind and another, and busying themselves gen- 

 erally, while the children hung about listening to the 

 fearsome stories of creatures who leaped from their 

 Daddies' imaginations to people the woods. 



And then came the awakening of the German 

 commercial giant. The states which had been evolved 

 from scores of woodland principalities came to realize 

 that they were vitally concerned in the progress of the 

 I'ederation, so Baden and Wurttemberg set about 



481 



