FOKESTS AND EMPLOYMENT IN GERMANY 43 



citizen between the ages of 18 and 25. 22 The relief phase, therefore, 

 is no longer important. It is unnecessary here to go into detail as to 

 the social and political objectives of the Labor Service. It has im- 

 portant economic objectives, in which forestry has a part. These 

 objectives are to increase the productivity of the German territory 

 and to promote the redistribution of population in such a manner 

 that all of the national resources may be utilized to the best advantage. 

 Of the work accomplished up to the middle of 1935, about 60 percent, 

 measured in man-days, was in improvement of agricultural land, 

 including drainage, irrigation, clearing of stumps and rocks, and 

 reclamation of land from the sea. About 15 percent was road con- 

 struction, 5 percent establishment of new settlements, and 10 percent 

 miscellaneous. Only 10 percent was forestry work (18). 



Projects to be undertaken by the Labor Service are supposed to 

 meet certain requirements (19): 



1. They must be of public benefit. 



2. They must be self -liquidating; i. e., there must be prospect that the benefits 

 sooner or later will at least balance the costs. 



3. They must require relatively small capital investment in proportion to the 

 amount of labor required. 



4. The work must be fairly simple, so that it can be learned easily; there must 

 be some variety to it; and it must be suitable for men working in crews. 



5. Projects must be such that they can be started or dropped at any time, and 

 work must be practical during most of the year. 



6. There must be enough work in one place to justify setting up a camp, without 

 having to spend too much time in travel to and from work; projects must be well 

 distributed geographically. 



7. The work must generally be of a kind that would not ordinarily be done by 

 regular workers. 



Some kinds of forest work meet these specifications admirably. 

 Kinds that are considered especially suitable for the Labor Service 

 are afforestation of idle land, reforestation of extensive denuded areas 

 (not ordinary reforestation following cutting), construction of forest 

 roads (beyond the ordinary forest budget), improvement of pastures 

 and meadows, pruning, and extraction of resin. Regular planting and 

 construction work is reserved for the regular workers, as is timber 

 cutting. The Labor Service is sometimes used to make thinnings 

 in young stands, where the cost of the work cannot be recovered from 

 the sale of the material removed. 



A considerable amount of work in one locality, either a large project 

 or many small ones, is necessary to justify establishment of a Labor 

 Service camp. The camps normally contain 216 men, including 

 leaders, and figure on about 50,000 man-days work a year. Owing to 

 the overhead cost of buildings and equipment, which are provided by 

 the Forest Service where jobs are on the State forests, it is the policy 

 to prefer projects that will require 2 or more years' work from one 

 camp (20, v. 15). It seems to be agreed that the young men in the 

 Labor Service, although willing, cannot accomplish nearly as much 

 work as experienced forest laborers. Thalau (37), for instance, 

 estimates that their work is 90 to 100 percent as good as that of regular 

 workers, but that they do only 60 to 70 percent as much. He and 

 other writers (19, 23) agree that the work could be done more cheaply 

 by regular workers at regular wages, but that the moral, physical, and 

 social benefits to the young men far outweigh the greater cost. 



22 It was made compulsory in 1933 for college students and all persons who intended to enter the public 

 services. 



