GERMANY. 
It is generally conceded that both the science and art 
of forestry are most thoroughly developed and most in- 
tensively applied throughout Germany. It must, how- 
ever, not be understood that in the practical application 
of the art perfection has been reached anywhere, or that 
the science, which like that of medicine has been largely 
a growth of empiricism, is in all parts safely based; nor 
are definitely settled forest policies so entrenched, that 
they have become immutable. On the contrary, there 
are still mismanaged and unmanaged woods to be found, 
mainly those in the hands of farmers and other private 
owners ; there are still even in well managed forests prac- 
tices pursued which are known not to conform to theo- 
Besides a dozen or more earlier histories of forestry in Germany, some of 
which date back to the beginning of the 19th century, there are two excellent 
modern compilations, namely: 
Geschichte des Waldeigenthums, der Waldwirtschaft und Forstwissenschaft 
in Deutschland, by AucustT BERNHARDT, 1872-75, 3 Vols., 1062 pp., a classic, 
which treats especially extensively of political and economic questions having a 
bearing on the development of forestry ; and 
Handbuch der Forst—und Jagdgeschichte Deutschlands, by ADAM SCHWAP- 
PACH, 1886, 2 Vols., 892 pp., which appeared as a second edition of Bernhardt’s 
history abridging the political history and expanding the forestry part. This 
volume has been mainly followed in the following presentation of the subject. In 
condensed form this history is also to be found in Lorey’s Handbuch der Forst- 
wissenschaft, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 143-210. 
In Schwappach’s history a full list of original sources is enumerated. These 
are, for the oldest period, Roman writers, which are unreliable; the laws of the 
various German tribes ; the laws of kings (Capitularia) ; the laws of villages and 
other territorial districts ; ‘‘ Weisthiimer’’ (judgments); inventories of properties 
(especially of churches and cloisters); documents of business transactions and 
chronicles, For the time after the Middle ages the most important source is found 
in ithe Forest Re Spranteity of princes and other forest owners; forest laws; police 
h 
< and finally special literature. 
