108 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



iree, and man, sled, and cordwood land in a much dis- 

 ordered pile. 



The "Schiffervvaid," for such is its short name, 

 (^'Murgenthallerschiffergesellschaftswald" for long), 

 boasts not a single lumber camp such as we might know 

 it in America. Within its borders lie one or two clusters 

 of oak-raftered, mud and stone houses, built perhaps 

 by the great, great grandfather of the present occupant 

 perhaps longer ago than that. Here live the woodsmen 

 with their wives and usually extensive families, whose 

 sons will some day grow up to take the father's place as 

 woodcutters for the great company. One cannot but think 

 of a time, not so far oflf perhaps, when the last teniT 

 porary shacks of the American lumber company will have 

 given way to well constructed forest villages, housing 

 the men who care for the permanent resources of our 

 wood working industries. 



The keynote of every successful private operation must 

 be profits. An average of three per cent net per annum 

 earned by this company may not seem very large in com- 

 parison with some other businesses, but every such propo- 

 sition owned by its principal customers has a double 



value. The main point is that the stockholders are as- 

 sured of a permanent annual supply of saw logs or pulj)- 

 wood as they may require, and there is hardly a sawmill 

 or especially a paper company in America that would 

 not jump at such an opportunity. 



This is a forest of Spruce and Fir, depending for its 

 profitable operation on complete utilization of every 

 cubic foot of wood in the tree, not just about one-third 

 of it as in America. The large logs go for lumber, the 

 tops and cleaner branches for pulpwood, the spruce bark 

 to tanneries, fir bark and all knotty or small branches for 

 fuel. After the loggers have completed their task noth- 

 ing larger than about an inch or two in diameter remains. 

 Then the nearby peasants, the wives and daughters of 

 the woodcutters appear and pay about 10c an acre for the 

 privilege of collecting the remains for their own house- 

 hold fires. If anything is then left it is scattered by the 

 woodsmen so that accumulated piles may not hinder the 

 growth of the seedlings. Nature, aided by perfect fire 

 protection, does the rest, for the seed falls from the 

 remaining uncut trees and every low stump is soon 

 surrounded with new little shoots of green. 



IN THE BLACK FOREST 43 YEARS AGO 



IT is particularly interesting, in 

 in the above article of lumberi 

 to read what Mr. Charles Lathrop 

 author, wrote about his 

 visit to the Black Forest 

 forty-three years ago. The 

 following extract is taken 

 from an article in the 

 Cleveland (Ohio) Herald 

 in August, 1878 : 



"Tuesday we arrived 

 here and presented our let 

 ters of introduction to Herr 

 Katz, one of the largest 

 lumber maiiufactuilers of 

 the Black Forest. Herr 

 Katz is also a member of 

 the German Parliament, is 

 well-posted about the poli- 

 tics of the United States, 

 and sides with the Repub- 

 licans. Yesterday we were 

 invited to look at his saw 

 mills, of which he has four. 

 He very kindly showed us 

 through all his mills and 

 gave us much general in- 

 formation. The mills were 

 a great sur])rise and very 

 much larger than we ex- This 

 l)ected to see in Euro])e. 

 They all run by water ])Ower, of 

 limited sujijily. The largest mill 



view of the description a circular and a nondescript machine for making thin 

 ng in the Black Forest boards from slabs. The lumber is sent all over Germany 

 Pack, the father of the and also to Holland, Belgium and France. Mr. Katz 



furnished a large bill of 



timber for the Paris Expo- 

 sition Buildings. No 

 shingles or lath are made. 

 The law prohibits shingled 

 roofs in towns and villages, 

 and the plaster is put di- 

 rectly on the walls, so there 

 is no sale for either. The 

 Black Forest is the largest 

 timbered district in Ger 

 many. It is very mountain- 

 ous, and all the land ex- 

 cept the valley bottom is 

 covered with forest. The 

 timber is of three kinds, 

 all species of pine. The 

 variety called by the na- 

 tive Germans 'tanne' 

 and in many respects 

 like our American 

 spruce, comprises two- 

 thirds of the total. The 

 forest is owned, almost ex- 

 clusively, by the genera' 

 and town governments, 

 who have officers to look 

 after their property. At 



A FOREST BE.\UTY SPOT 



forest in Germany comprises about 12,000 acres of land, 

 similar to our .Adirondack Mountain region. 



which there is an un- 

 contains three "aiiys. 



intervals one of these officers goes through his district 

 and marks such trees as are to be cut, and thev are sold. 



