135 



cent, were dealt with under the compensation law, and the remaining 23 per cent, 

 were taken into court, convictions being obtained in 99 per cent of these cases. 



In addition to clauses dealing directly with wood thefts, illicit grazing, and 

 other fraudulent practices, the forest law provides that no person having cutting 

 instruments in his hand can leave the ordinary roads which pass through the 

 forests, and that no fire can be either lighted or carried within, or at a less 

 distance than two hundred yards from any forest boundaries. A regular tariff 

 exists, which fixes tho penalties for damaging trees of various ages and species. 

 The law also prohibits the erection, without permission, of brick-works, or lime- 

 kilns, carpenters'-shops, timber-yards, or saw-mills, within certain distances of 

 the forest. At the time that the law was passed, it was much more necessary 

 than it is at present to check the erection of such buildings, and applications for 

 permission to construct them are now usually accorded on suitable conditions. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY WILD ANIMALS AND INSECTS, STORMS AND FIRES. 



Wild animals and insects. The principal wild animals which cause injury 

 to forests, either by devouring the seed or the young seedlings, or by peeling the 

 bark off the young plants, are deer, pigs, hares and rabbits. The insects which 

 attack the leaves, the bark, and even the wood of trees, belong chiefly to the 

 families Goleoptera, Lepidoptera,&nd Hymenoptera. But the damage done is not 

 excessive, and it is, in fact, far less than that produced by the same causes in 

 many other countries. It is of course exceedingly difficult to put a money 

 value upon injuries of this sort, which include not only the actual death of 

 a certain number of old and young trees, but also a reduction in the growth 

 of others. An estimate was, however, made regarding the damage done in 

 1876, and it is said to have amounted to about 4s. per 100 acres, taken on the 

 entire area of the State and communal forests. The coniferous trees generally 

 suffer more than the broad-leaved species, as they are more exposed to the attacks 

 of insects which do not infrequently kill them outright, whereas the latter species 

 more often suffer merely a diminution in their rate of increase. 



Storms. The damage done by storms of wind is a much more serious matter. 

 Injuries are caused to the forest by them which it is not always possible either 

 to prevent or even to modify. In the first place, the windfalls interfere with 

 the arrangements laid down in the working plan, and the considerations which 

 guide the execution of felling are thus thrown out ; they remove too large a pro- 

 portion of the seed-bearing trees, and consequently it is sometimes necessary to 

 substitute a difficult and artificial process fur the natural regeneration which 

 would otherwise have been effected ; while in addition to this they break or 

 otherwise damage neighboring trees by their fall. In the second place, the value 

 of the windfalls themselves is, speaking generally, small, as they are frequently 

 broken or otherwise injured, while most of them have probably not attained the 

 age or dimensions at which it was intended that they should be felled. They are 

 also specially liable to attacks by insects, which often appear in large numbers in 

 forests where many trees were blown down, particularly in case of the coniferous 

 species. Even uninjured windfalls fetch a lower price than trees felled in a regu- 

 lar manner, because they are usually found scattered here and there, instead of 

 being concentrated in one part of the forest. 



The year 1876, which is the last for which figures can be obtained, was a 

 disastrous one, the amount of windfalls being exceptionally large, probably 

 double of that which occurs during an average year. The number was put 



