35U I-A.\l)-TJtANSPUKT. 



are also used, and wherever the timber is transferred from trucks 

 of one gauge to those of another, cranes arc indispensable. 



Whether the construction and working of a forest tramway is 

 best undertaken by the forest management, or by a contractor, is 

 a question which cannot be answered in a general way; the 

 nature of the locality, volume of wood to be transported, length 

 of the lines, greater or less delay experienced in clearing the 

 felling-areas and several other factors, intervene. 



Circumstances ditt'er materially in the case of tramways which 

 are at present being worked. In general, except in the case of 

 railways of the ordinary gauge, experience has shown that it is 

 more economical to construct and work the lines directly, and 

 not by contract, and this quite independently of the advantage 

 to the forest owner in having, in the former case, more freedom 

 in the management of his forest. 



Main lines in complete unison with the ordinary railway 

 system of a country should evidently be constructed and 

 managed by railway-engineers. Thus, the 1*2 kilometers 

 (7i miles) of railroad in the Ebersberg forest were very rapidly 

 constructed by the 1st Pioneer battalion from the Munich 

 garrison. 



4. Statistics. 



The nineteenth century is chiefly characterised by great 

 improvements in machinery and a consequent complete revolution 

 in the means of transport and communications. Forestry should 

 therefore march with the times, and improve the means of trans- 

 port in forests which are difficult of access. It is a great mark 

 of progress during the last 20 or 30 years, in such a conservative 

 industry as forestry, that a considerable extension of forest-tram- 

 ways has taken place. 



Dozens of forest-tramways have been constructed in Germany 

 during the last ten years, and there is scarcely a German pro- 

 vince in which either a permanent or temporary tramway is 

 not being worked. The first steps in this direction were taken 

 in North Germany, in the difterent Prussian and Saxon provinces, 

 and South Germany has followed suit, partly owing to the 

 enormous volumes of timber following the great destruction of 

 forests by insects, or storms, in South Ijavaria, the Yosges Moun- 

 tains and Wi'irtemberg. 



