November 28, 1888.] 



Garden and Jr'orest. 



477 



tree would be destroyed for this purpose. The substitution 

 of iron for wood in ship-building has saved, however, the 

 Live Oak. The trees are too hanl and too difficult to cut 

 down to make them very available for fuel ; and the wood, 

 although unsurpassed in beauty by that of any other 

 American Oak, is not much used in cabinet work, for which 

 it is well suited, owing to the difficulty of working it. 



"The Acorns," old Mark Catesby tells us, writing more 

 than a century and a half ago, ' ' are the sweetest of all 

 others ; of which the Indians usually lay up store to thicken 

 their venison-soop, and prepare them other ways. They 

 likewise draw an Oil, very pleasant and wholesome, little 

 inferior to that of Almonds." 



The Live Oak is perhaps the most ornamental of all 

 North American trees in cultivation. It grows very rap- 

 idly when young, more rapidly, indeed, than most Oaks ; 

 it thrives in nearly all soils, even when its roots are 

 washed by sea-water during periods of high tides; but to 

 develop all its beauties it should be planted in deep allu- 

 vial soil or upon the Carolina phosphates. A few old 

 avenues of noble Live Oaks, and some single specimens 

 in different parts of the South, especially in the coast 

 region of South Carolina, are certainly the most stately 

 and majestic trees which men have planted in North 

 America. - C. S. S. 



The Forest. 



Swiss Forest Laws. 



T^HE Report of Mr. Conway Thornton to the British Foreign 

 ■'■ Office, on the Swiss Forest Laws, is a careful and interest- 

 ing piece of work. From a summary which appears in a late 

 number of Nature it is evident that from a very early date the 

 various cantons endeavored to preserve the forests. Thus, in 

 1314, the authorities of one forbade "the felling, tioating or 

 selling " of timber from the Sihlwald; in 1339, another forbade 

 charcoal-burning near the chief towns. Industries using 

 wood were restricted in their operations ; the laying out of 

 new vineyards was prohibited under heavy penalties for cen- 

 turies; and finally, during last century, the use of uncloven 

 vine-props was forbidden. The e.xportation of timber took 

 place only under great difficulties, and even the removal of 

 timber from one place to another in Switzerland was, until 

 1848, very much restricted. In 1376, Zurich forbade clearings 

 to be laid down in pasture, and Fribourg would not allow 

 sheep-pastures to be established in clearings. Goats were not 

 permitted to be let loose in the woods ; and rosin-scrapers 

 were e.\cluded from many of the forests. None of these 

 numerous decrees appear, however, to have had much effect, 

 the very number of them testifying to their powerlessness to 

 check the evil. 



In 1702, prior to which date attention was paid solely to the 

 maintenance and protection of the timber, the Government 

 appointed a Commission to inquire how the forests might be 

 best preserved, enlarged and improved ; and subsequently 

 issued a decree carrying the recommendations of the Com- 

 mission into effect. In 1725, Berne followed the example of 

 Zurich, and published forestry orders, which contained direc- 

 tions for the cultivation of timber and for permanent improve- 

 ments. Similarly, in other cantons, improved systems were 

 introduced; the compulsory planting of marshy meadow-land 

 was decreed; a season was set apart for felling, the growth of 

 Oaks was recommended, and the formation of clearings was 

 forbidden. In 1755, an excellent forestry code was drawn up 

 by Joseph Wilhelm, Prince-Bishop of Bale. About 1760, two 

 scientific societies — the Physical Society of Zurich and the 

 Economical Society of Berne — made great efforts to introduce 

 improved knowedge of woodcraft into Switzerland, and with 

 this object they made strong representations to their respective 

 Governments, and the Forestry Decrees of 1773 and 1786 were 

 the results. The substance of these decrees may be stated to 

 be the surveying of forests, the appointment of officials who 

 would supervise planting, experiment on exotics, and help in 

 teaching a more scientific system of wood cutting. By means 

 of these measures some real progress was made, which, how- 

 ever, was stopped by the general confusion during the begin- 

 ning of this century ; but when peace was restored, the Hel- 

 vetic Government turned their attention again to the forests, 

 which by this time had suffered severely. Soleure was the 

 first to start a system under which technical instruction was 

 given to two citizens from each woodland district, the better 



qualified being chosen foresters. From this time until 1830, 

 forest laws were drawn up universally, prescribing the modes 

 in which timber was to be felled. 



In consequence of the disastrous floods in Switzerland in 

 1830 forest laws were more generally enacted and more rigidly 

 enforced than they had ever been before. The number of 

 officials was increased, and great attention was paid to their 

 training. In fact, the spread of the science of forestry in 

 Swdtzerland dates from this period. At first the people 

 thwarted the officials in every way, but, becoming gradually 

 enlightened as to the utility of the government measures, they 

 ceased from actual opposition. Even the most backward of 

 the cantons began to realize that their true interests lay in the 

 preservation of the forests, both as a commercial speculation, 

 having, regard to tire advancing price of timber, and as a sup- 

 port tor precipitous ground, and on account of its domestic 

 and national uses. 



Hitherto the students trained in forestry had been sent to 

 the schools in Germany, but in 1855 the Confederation estab- 

 lished a Forestry School, in which henceforth Swiss students 

 were educated in the art of woodcraft and the kindred 

 sciences. In 1858 a searching inquiry was made into the sup- 

 posed connection of the forests and the course of the moun- 

 tain torrents, and, as a consequence, the state aided the School 

 of Forestry in their efforts to plant anew the ground where 

 springs abounded, and officials were appointed for this pur- 

 pose. With regard to these officials, mention of whom occurs 

 in all the forest laws of Switzerland, we first hear of them in 

 1314, when, as in subsequent centuries, they were supposed to 

 be aided by the inhabitants, every one of whom in a wood- 

 land district was sworn to disclose any breach of the decrees 

 which came to his knowledge. The ordinary forest-keeper 

 was generally nothing more than an intelligent wood-cutter ; 

 but when it was seen that some technical teaching was neces- 

 sary, the skilled man, and, later still, the man with a knowledge 

 of natural science and mathematics, was always preferred. In 

 1868 the disastrous floods gave a fresh impetus to the spirit of 

 inquiry into the action ot the forests on the rainfall and the 

 course of the torrents; and in the revised Federal Constitution 

 of 1874 an article was inserted giving the Federation control 

 over the forests and waterways, and authority to interfere in 

 any way they may think fit. Under this article two officials 

 were appointed — the Federal Inspector of Forests, and also a 

 sub-Inspector. The Forestry Societies unanimously adopted 

 a programme which, being presented to the Federal Council, 

 was embodied m the Forest Law proposed by the Council in 

 1875. This proposed enactment led to much discussion in the 

 Assembly, but was finally passed by both Houses. The dis- 

 trict to be subject to the law included not only the high moun- 

 tain ranges, but also the hills bordering on the plains, as 

 sharing in the protection afforded against floods and ava- 

 lanches by the works which were intended to be undertaken 

 in the former. The district included a tract of country in all 

 about sixty per cent, of the whole of Switzerland, or 6,750,000 

 acres, about 15.8 per cent, of which was forest land. It was 

 decided that the rights of private owners should not be 

 infringed except in case of necessity — thai is to say, where the 

 woods of private owners were ' protecting ' woods ; in other 

 words, where, on account of their position, they might have 

 an influence on the climate, avalanches, landslips, etc. Each 

 canton was required to maintain an efficient staff" of officials ; 

 and to each individual who had received technical training an 

 area of about 17,500 acres was assigned if in the plains, and 

 25,000 acres on the mountains. All the woods under official 

 supervision, including, of .course, private woods which came 

 under the class ' protecting ' woods, were to be demarcated, 

 all clearings were to be immediately planted afresh, and where 

 necessary new forests were to be created, the Federal treasury 

 bearing from thirty to seventy per cent, of the cost, or, in the 

 case of replanting protecting woods, from twenty to fifty per 

 cent., according to the difficulty and the importance of the 

 works, which were always required to receive the approval of 

 the Inspector-General before the Federal subvention was 

 granted. Anything which might endanger tlie utility of the 

 forests was strictly forbidden; cattle were not allowed to graze, 

 nor could leaves be collected except in fixed spots. To this 

 enactment was added a ' Reglement d'Ex6cution,' which pro- 

 vides, among other things, for the course of education to be 

 given to eacii student of forestry by the canton to entitle it to 

 the Federal subsidy. Instruction must be given in the follow- 

 ing sul)jects: (i) Forest-surveying and measurement in detail; 

 calculations of the dimensions and value of single trees, and 

 of outlying tracts of wood ; road-making ; safeguards against 

 avalanches, etc. (2) Study of the different kinds of timber and 

 of noxious plants. (3) Elementary knowledge of soils, and of 



