THE FUNCTION OF THE FOREST 



By Dr. N. KAUMANNS 

 Imperial German Agricultural Attache to the United States 



IF IN my speech I do not touch some 

 questions of importance to your in- 

 terests, you may seek the reason for 

 this in the fact that, only lately, your 

 first authority on forestry has published 

 a most thorough and able pamphlet in 

 this direction, entitled, "What Forestry 

 Mas Done." 



I am proud and at the same time 

 glad to read in this pamphlet, what 

 position Mr. Pinchot assigns to German 

 forestry in the Union, and that is why 

 I. too, gladly accepted your kind invi- 

 tation to speak here about the import- 

 ance of forestry in general. 



If we wish to assign some reason 

 for the great pleasure and interest Ger- 

 mans and peoples of Germanic race take 

 in forests and things of the forest more 

 than peoples of Latin stock, we must 

 seek it in their character. From ancient 

 times the Germans have regarded their 

 groves with great veneration. Under 

 the branches of trees still more ancient, 

 our ancestors conducted the solemn 

 ceremonies of their worship. The dei- 

 ties spoke to them in the rustling of 

 the leaves and the creaking of the 

 boughs. And to-day their descendants 

 break out in song and jubilation amid 

 leafy shades that centuries ago wit- 

 nessed the solemn procession wend its 

 way to the sacrificial altars. 



The inhabitants of ancient India, 

 also, venerated the forests as the spe- 

 cial dwelling-place of their divinities, 

 but the early Germans were, in a 

 greater sense, children of the woods. 

 They lived in the forests. The forests 

 furnished them all the necessities of 

 life, just as the wild beasts, particularly 

 the bear, clothed them with their furs. 



The wild bees, hanging their busy 

 hives on the boughs, gave them honey, 

 which, when mixed with the sap of the 

 birch, made a wholesome beverage. 

 Their huts were built of the wood of 

 the trees about them ; they warmed 

 themselves at fires whose fagots came 

 from the timber. Their weapons, par- 

 ticularly the long spear, were for the 

 most part fashioned from the stoutest 

 woods. Their religion was essentially 

 a forest-cult, traces of which are still 

 to be found in the inborn love and ap- 

 preciation of their modern representa- 

 tives for the beauties of the woodlands, 

 their leafy solitudes, the music of the 

 wind in the branches, the caroling of 

 the birds in the lofty treetops and the 

 soft murmurs of some half-hidden 

 rill. "The God of the German dwelt 

 not in the cold wealth of marble fane, 

 nor in the echoing vastness of grand 

 cathedrals, but mid the fresh groves of 

 eternal oaks." Under these venerable 

 trees the ancient German adored his 

 gods, for there only, it seemed to him, 

 could divinity properly dwell. 



It is but natural that men who had 

 been brought up in the close companion- 

 ship of the forests should transmit to 

 their offspring, through well-nigh 

 countless generations, some of their 

 deep regard for woodland beauty, an- 

 tiquity and associations. Rut \.ith this 

 regard they associated due appreciation 

 of the present economic value of their 

 forests. The question of their preser- 

 vation and distribution, so that all 

 places may at all times derive their 

 share of the benefits from them, is one 

 of pressing importance. Aside from 

 every consideration of the past, the 



*Delivercd before the National Irrigation Congress at Spokane, Wash., August, 1909. 

 3 671 



