S13 



APPENDIX. 



Gbazixg in Fobests. 



In certain districts the organisation of a forest mast take into 

 account the grazing rights or privileges exercised there. In the 

 broad-leaved forests of our plains, where wood is a valuable com- 

 modity and agriculture is in an advanced siatej these rights and 

 privileges are, as a rule, either too restricted to require any atten- 

 tion, or do not exist at all ; the advanced farmer and stock-breeder 

 there would care little for such a wretched way of feeding his 

 cattle. Thus it is in the conifer fores' s of our mountain districts 

 that forest grazing is chiefly resorted to. 



Before every thing else it is necessary here to distinguish 

 for grazing purposes the ovine class of animals, that is, sheep and 

 goats, from the bovine and equine classes, viz., cows, bulls, horses, 

 mares, asses, and mules. The grazing of the first class of animals 

 is the most fruitful cause of the destruction of our mountain 

 fores's; and Sections 73 and 110 of the Forest Code accordingly 

 prohibit it in a complete manner in forests managed by the State- 

 Some exceptions, however, are made in favour of sheep alone, but 

 they are all the more to be deplored for the reason that the graz- 

 ing of sheep in forests yields sraaller returns than even the slen" 

 der profits derived from the similar grazing of cows. The area 

 required to feed one cow is sufiBcient for only 5 sheep, whereas the 

 money value of the 5 sheep is only one-third that of the single 

 cow^. Thus in the Alps the aggregate price of the former Tvould 

 te only 10 shiliings, while the latter, even if only a small animal, 

 would fetch 48 shillings. It is, therefore, a question of urgency, 

 both in the interests of private individuals and of the community 

 at large, to suppress the grazing of sheep in our forests. To 

 think of maintaining it and providing against unnecessary damage 

 to the forest by means of special restrictions would be futile, 

 for mountain forests on the oae hand and sheep on the other are 

 two totally incomi; alible things. 



The grazing of cows, profitless in forests of silver fir, in which 

 grass can grow only in the blanks, is never of much value in pine 

 forests, the soil of w hich is always unfertile and dry. It is always 

 in the open foreots formed by larch that rich pasture is found 



