248 FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



In the Austrian forest statistics (as shown in table No. i) the important 

 distinction is made between those of deciduous trees, principally oaks and 

 beeches, and those of the coniferous, such as pines, firs and larches. 



Forests communal (or in common) are found in all the provinces, and 

 may be divided into two classes, which I distinguish as class a and b. 



(a.) These are under the care of foresters who administer them for the 

 benefit of the treasuries of the communes to which they belong. No person 

 is allowed to cut wood at pleasure, but each member of the. community can 

 purchase, at prices fixed by the communal council, whatever his necessities 

 require, the prices being regulated by the expenses of administration, and by 

 any costs incurred by the community- — for instance, in delivering to an appli- 

 cant timber for building in the village. In such a case the price includes 

 cutting, shaping, and transportation. Rights of pasturage and of gathering 

 decaying foliage — of great value here for compost — are reserved to members 

 of the commune, and a moderate tgx is collected for their enjoyment. The 

 annual income from these forests is small, as a rule devoted to their ad- 

 ministration, to their preservation by new planting of trees, and to the im- 

 provement of the public highways. 



((5.) Communal forests, in which the members of the commune were 

 formerly allowed to cut fuel and timber for domestic uses, to gather the de- 

 caying foliage and to pasture their cattle. Here again there was a distinc- 

 tion between those for which such privileges were moderately taxed and 

 those which were free. Of course abuses of these rights prevailed, there 

 being no forest officials to guard the communal interests, and the state has 

 been compelled to interfere and place such forests in charge of the public 

 authorities. They are now subject to stringent but indispensable regulations 

 for the benefit of the communes. 



The annual cuttings are limited to mature or defective trees, the times 

 for felling are fixed, the mode prescribed, and in the transportation it is 

 provided that no damage shall be done to young trees or plants. Under 

 suitable penalties no gathering of decaying foliage on any one locality is 

 allowed oftener than once in three years, and pasturage is forbidden where 

 young plants can be damaged by the animals. The communes are required 

 to appoint and remunerate foresters, whose duty is made not only to guard 

 the forests from the encroachments of persons who have no rights in them, 

 but also from abuses and infractions of the law by those who have. 



Sad experience has taught the necessity of the greatest stringency in the 

 forest laws in the mountain districts, and there is a class of communal forests 

 there that are placed under the exclusive control of the state officials. The 

 subdivisions of this class are : 



I. Those on the tops of mountains. These, with their decaying foliage, 

 retain the snows and rains, thus diminishing the force of the spring torrents, 

 lessening the damage of inundations below and giving supplies to the sources 

 of springs. 



2. Those on steep declivities. These are most carefully cherished not only 

 for the above reason, but as the only security against landslides, which have 



