existing forest. Ten years is too long a time 
to wait for returns on a speculative venture. 
And there seems to have been the idea, too, that 
after an owner had cared for his forest for a 
decade, he would have got the habit and desire 
for continuing proper management. Anyway 
the 1805 law is still in force, and particularly 
the ten-year cutting provision. 
There is likelihood that all the Danish for- 
est laws will be codified, amended and re-en- 
acted at an early session of parliament, but it 
was the opinion of more than one Danish forest- 
er that the essential provisions of the law of 
1805 were fairly sure to be continued. In Den- 
mark, as in Sweden, the public appreciates the 
value of the forests and apparently makes little 
objection to the law nor attempts to evade it. 
Some railroad fire laws have recently been 
enacted (1920) that provide for the payment of 
damages by the railways for fires set from 
sparks from the locomotives. These are of in- 
The forest area of Denmark (333,000 hectare) 
is divided into a number of classes of owner- 
ship: State forests, 17 percent; sand dune for- 
ests, 7 percent; communal forests, 2 percent; 
estate and “foundation” forests, 21 percent; 
those controlled by the Heath Society, 2 per- 
cent; association and corporation owned for- 
ests, 4 percent; privately owned (largely in 
small holdings), 47 percent. 
The Danish Forest Service is a branch of 
the Department of Agriculture (Landbrugs- 
ministeriet) and has two principal divisions: 
That charged with administering the state for- 
ests and the dunes (Domaene Kontoret), and 
that which oversees the privately owned for- 
est land (Landvaesenskontoret). The head- 
quarters are in Copenhagen but there are vari- 
ous districts covering the country. 
Under old laws the forest lands belonging tc 
the families of the nobility could be neither 
sold nor mortgaged, the idea being to make cer- 
a|A PARTICULARLY 
| FINE FOREST 
|| LN GLOMMEN 
| VALLEY, 
NORWAY 
terest because the greater part of the Danish 
railroads are owned and operated by the gov- 
ernment. These laws also make elaborate 
provision for fire lines to be constructed par- 
alleling the right of way, on the privately owned 
land, but at the expense of the railway. The 
traveler in Denmark should not confuse these 
fire protective strips with the shelter belts 
along certain of the lines made to prevent the 
drifting of snow. These snow guard planta- 
tions are conspicuous and characteristic fea- 
tures of the Danish railways. 
Beech is an important forest tree in Den- 
mark along with the pine and the spruce, and 
there is also some oak. The best beech forests 
are in the southern part of Jutland where the 
stands consist of tall trees with 50 to 60 
feet of merchantable length; clear, straight 
stems with diameters in the mature trees 
of 13 to 16 inches, breast high. The oaks 
are usually not of as good form. But in the 
forest plantations one usually finds the coni- 
fers, pine and spruce, and in some places the 
introduced Douglas fir and Sitka spruce. 
(32 
tain an assured income, but in 1916 a law was 
enacted to break up the entail so that these for- 
ests may now be subdivided and sold. The 
“foundation forests” are areas set apart, usual- 
ly by provisions in the will of the owner, to 
provide an income for his widow or other de- 
pendents, or for some other specified purpose. 
Many elderly ladies of noble families are thus 
provided for. In American usage they might 
be called “old ladies’ home forests.” It is also 
a rather general custom in Denmark, particu- 
larly through the Heath Society, for persons of 
means to give or bequeath money for the es- 
tablishment of memorial forests, that shall for- 
ever bear the name of the donor. This is a 
practice that might advantageously be intro- 
duced into the United States, especially in the 
establishment of town or village forests. Cer- 
tainly no better memorial could be erected than 
2 forest under continuous management that 
forever keeps green the name of the man who 
established it. Individual memorial trees are 
very good in their way, but a forest that can be 
renewed in perpetuity is vastly better. 
) 
