638 



Canadian Forestry Journal, July, ipi6. 



War's Effects on the Forests 

 of Switzerland 



Mobilization Took Away Three-Quarters of the Swiss 



Foresters — A Soaring Market for 



Wood Products 



(Translated From "Revue des Fan et Forests.") 



War broke out exactly at a period 

 of intense activity for the mountain 

 foresters busy with the works of de- 

 fense against avalanches, with the 

 working out of plans of manage- 

 ment and road projects, works 

 which are carried out during the 

 long days of the summer when the 

 snow is gone and it is possible to 

 travel easily in high mountains. 



The foresters of the valleys were 

 ha\"ing some weeks of less intensive 

 work after the operations of the 

 spring and the commencement of 

 the autumn work, and had gone to 

 the National Exposition, of which 

 the forestry section was the rendez- 

 vous for all the "woodsmen. 



The mobilization of our three 

 classes of the army (Elite, Land- 

 wehr and Landsturm) took away 

 from their duties three-quarters of 

 the Swiss foresters, occupying in 

 the army the most x'aried posts from 

 the simple soldier or non-commis- 

 sioned officer to the commander of 

 a regiment. Those who remained at 

 their civil posts had an arduous 

 task, although in the month of Oc- 

 tober the depression in business was 

 general and had its effect on the 

 wood market. The mobilization co- 

 incided with the automatic stoppage 



of construction, especially in the 

 cities where the nancial and eco- 

 nomic crisis was and is intense. 

 "Wlien construction is not going on 

 nothing is going on," they say in 



Switzerland. We have realized it 

 in a serious wav since the 1st Au- 

 gust. 1914. 



Big Cut of Fuel Wood. 



At the end of September the pub- 

 lic authorities feared that the sup- 

 ply of coal and oil would be short, 

 fijr these combustible minerals come 

 to us especially from Germany and 

 Belgium. They, therefore, asked the 

 foresters to cut great quantities of 

 fuel wood, which was not very easy 

 on account of the mobilization of the 

 greater part of the fit men and by 

 the departure of nearly all of the 

 staffs of the Italian wood mer- 

 chants who are our useful auxiliary 

 foresters. As a matter of fact more 

 fuel wood was cut than Avas neces- 

 sary, for the coal arrived and still 

 arrives more or less regularly, and 

 the price has scarcely increased 

 more than 10 per cent. In fact the 

 market for fuel wood has scarcely 

 increased, compared with that of 

 1913. 



Few Government or communal 

 forests delivered the usual quantity 

 of timber, for it was known that 

 there was no construction going on, 

 and the foreigner was not at that 

 time making demands upon our 

 sawn wood. 



