174 Switzerlcmd. 



from 9% (Basel and Genf) to over 39% (in the Jura) 

 of the total land area of the different cantons, the aver- 

 age being 30%, leaving out of consideration the area 

 above timber limit (5,000 to 7,500 feet), and the waters 

 and rocks below. This is less than in Germany and 

 Austria, more than in France. But if unproductive 

 soil, which represents over 28%, is excluded, the per- 

 centage of forest area on productive soil would about 

 equal Germany. 



Property rights developed at first similarly to those 

 developed on German soil, except that, as we have seen, 

 feudal conditions were not allowed to gain foothold to 

 the same extent, and liberty from serfdom was secured 

 earlier. At present, ownership is still largely communal : 

 of the 2 million acres of forest nearly 67% are so owned, 

 making this property of highest forest political impor- 

 tance; private owners hold only 38.6% and the cantonal 

 forests represent but 4.5%, the Bund as such owning 

 none. It is also to be noted that commimal property is 

 constantly increasing by purchases from private hold- 

 ings. 



Fo doubt in some parts the first beginnings of care for 

 forest property and forest use date back even to Eoman 

 times. Charlemagne had his forest officials here as 

 elsewhere, and the number of ban forests seems to have 

 been especially great, some 400 '^bannbriefe," docu- 

 ments establishing them, having been collected at Bern. 

 The first forest ordinance regulating the use of a special 

 forest area in Bern dates from 1304. But the first 

 working plan seems to have been made for the city for- 



