PASTURE. 5J7 



sylvicnltural limits, the enforcement of which is not prevented 

 by any legal rights. In the Alps, however, and some other 

 mountainous districts, forest pasture is still as bad an impedi- 

 ment to forestry as ever. 



From a National- Economic Point of View. — The gain to agri- 

 culture through forest pasture from the large quantities of 

 grass and other herbage which forests annually produce, and 

 from the maintenance and exercise of the beasts in the open air, 

 is too self-evident to be controverted. On the other hand, 

 the loss of manure is thus largely increased, and whenever, as 

 now almost everywhere, the latter is the turning-point of agri- 

 cultural profit, forest pasture is clearly a hindrance to agri- 

 cultural success. Stall-feeding, however, demands increased 

 supplies of fodder, and this in its turn, ^rass-meadows or rich 

 soils suitable for clover and other fodder-crops. In fertile 

 districts, and wherever rich meadows or other means allow 

 cattle to be fed in stalls or fields throughout the year and they 

 are chiefly kept for the production of manure, the farmer will 

 not think of sending his cattle into the forests to graze. The 

 more unfavourable, however, the agricultural conditions, and the 

 more the farmer is compelled to use all available means in 

 order to be able to feed his cattle at least through the winter, 

 the greater value does he attach to forest pasture. Forest 

 pasture, therefore, at present prevails in mountain-forest 

 regions where the climate is severe, and also in districts where 

 landed property is much sub-divided. 



Mountainous districts permit only of poor farming ; there, 

 crops of artificial fodder are scanty and the yield in straw is 

 insufficient for the winter's fodder-supply. Most mountainous 

 forest districts are in this plight. The less favourable the 

 conditions for agriculture, the more are the people driven to 

 cattle-breeding, and the more they value forest pasture ; in the 

 Alps and higher mountain-chains of the interior of Germany, 

 cattle-breeding and the production of milk and cheese are 

 the chief popular industries, and forest pasture far exceeds 

 sylvicnltural limits. The majority of so-called Alpine regula- 

 tions allow the villagers bordering on forests to drive as many 

 head of cattle into the State or other forests as they can 

 maintain during winter on their farms ; to leave the cattle day 



