FOREST REGULATIONS TX SWITZERLAND. 371 



In urgent cases, tbe chief of the circle shall take, conformably with 

 section 23, all the measures that may be necessary. 



Sec. 52. The requirements of paragraph 49, 50 and 51 are equally 

 applicable to the circles of free cities ; only that the chief of the circle 

 shall in that case be replaced by the burgomaster, and the assembly of 

 the circle by that of the deputies of the city. 



YI. PENAL EEGULATIONS. 



Sec. 53. Every owner, tenant, or farmer who shall cut down wood 

 contrary to the prohibitions of paragraph 20, shall be liable to a fine of 

 double the value of the wood cut. 



Every violation of an article of regulation required or forbidden, in 

 manner of special working, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 

 100 marcs (about $25). 



Sec. 54. The minister of agriculture is charged with the execution 

 of the present law. 



SWITZERLAND. 



Recent Federal law for Beboisement. 



In former times, no regard whatever was paid to the maintenance of 

 forests, and the few regulations that were adopted, referred rather to 

 the mode of using their products and to commercial affairs, than to im- 

 provement. But to this general statement an exception should be made 

 since ancient times, with respect to cases in which woods in certain 

 places served to protect houses, roads, or valuable property against 

 avalanches. During the first thirty years of the present cen:ury, the 

 attention of intelligent persons began to be turned toward measures for 

 the preservation of forests ; but the extraordinary devastation from 

 storms and other agencies, in 1835, gave rise to the most active forestal 

 legislation. Attentive observers saw that the destructive force of the 

 waters was greatly increased by the inconsiderate clearing of entire 

 slopes, and that the rapid discharge of the waters occasioned extensive 

 erosions. The reports made by experts appointed by the Swiss Society 

 of Public Utility for the inspection of the ravaged districts, and for 

 inquiry into the causes, entirely confirmed this observation, and strongly 

 attracted public attention to the necessity of adopting measures for the 

 protection of the forests. Tbe increased prices of wood, resulting from 

 the development of new industries, gave further importance to the for- 

 ests, and created a demand which often brought this material from 

 places distant from those where it was used. 



From this period legislation became frequent, and, in most of the can- 

 tons laws for protection antl management were enacted, but not upon a 

 uniform plan, and often quite short of the real wants of the occasion. 

 In Schwytz and Zug, no regulations were made. In Appenzall, Glaris, 

 Uri, Unlerwald, and Basle-Cam pagne, only a few rules were estab- 

 lished, but without a personal forestry service. In the other cantons 

 the regulations were more or less complete, but so different that a con- 

 cise account of their provisions could not be given. One of the best of 

 these systems was that enacted in the canton of Vaud. In fact, it had 

 but one serious fault, which was in the sections relating to the gather- 

 ing of leaves and litter for bedding and fertilizing. Among the better 

 class of forest regulations may also be mentioned those established la 

 the cantons of St. Gall, Grisons, Tessin, Lucerne, Berne, Freyburg, Va- 

 lais, and Soleure. 



