518 FOREST- FODDER. 



iiiul ni<,'lit ill the forests without bcrdsmt'ii, iind to cliouse their 

 own graziiif^ frrounds. Owing to le«,'al decisions there are many 

 local variations and more or less clearly worded moditications 

 in these reffulations. Whenever pasture is allowed owing to 

 prescriptive rights, as throughout the Alps, forests are always 

 in a very poor condition, for national-economic reasons Avill not 

 allow of such a limitation of the rights as to render them 

 harmless. The danger to the forest increases inversely with the 

 area closed to grazing and the necessity for feeding the cattle 

 on areas poorly stocked with grass. In such districts therefore 

 it is in the interest of forestry to favour the production of fodder 

 as much as possible, by not planting grassy blanks, leaving good 

 pasturage open and managing forests under the group system. 



In many of the interior mountain-ranges also, for instance 

 the Bavarian forest, pasture is a heavy clog to forestry, even 

 though the herdsmen are bound, before twihght begins, to 

 drive the cattle to their quarters for the night. 



Excessive sub-division of landed property is also a gi-eat 

 incentive to forest pasture. Where the poor peasant hardly 

 possesses enough land to grow potatoes for his family, and 

 can scarcely manage to stack sufficient fodder for the winter 

 supply of his cattle, he will pasture them as long as possible in 

 the forest. Whenever in a densely populated district which may 

 not be very favourable for agriculture, all the more fertile lands 

 belong to large owners and richer people, the worse lands are so 

 sub-divided amongst the poor that a single plot of land cannot 

 maintain a cow ; a goat is kept instead, and herds of goats, so 

 greedy for woody plants, are added to the herds of cattle. 



2. I'rixluction of Fodder in Forests. 



As already stated, forest fodder consists of the grass, herbage, 

 foliage and shoots of woody plants growing in the forest. It 

 is clear that in properly regulated pasturage woody plants 

 should not be utilized for fodder, as then wood could not be 

 produced. At the same time, there are certain beasts which 

 prefer them to other fodder, and there are circumstances, 

 seasons and local conditions when woody plants are dangerously 

 exposed by pasture. 



