FORESTS AXD EMPLOYMENT IX GERMANY 29 



Violations of these working rules may be punished by fines (gen- 

 erally not more than one-half day's wage), withdrawal of privileges 

 (to take firewood, etc.), temporary lay-off, or discharge. Fines are 

 paid into a fund for the support of sick and indigent forest workers. 

 Offenses known to the forest officer and unpunished for 14 days can- 

 not be punished later. 



PRIVILEGES AND PERQUISITES OF FOREST WORKERS 



"Wages in woods work average considerably lower than those in 

 industrial employment. This is possible partly because of the charac- 

 ter of the work, which is largely supplementary to work on the farms 

 or in local industries, and partly because of special privileges or con- 

 cessions granted to the workers. 



These include rights to gather berries and mushrooms free or upon 

 payment of a nominal charge, rights to cut grass, gather litter, and 

 pick up faggots, rights to get free firewood or to purchase it at reduced 

 rates, provision of house and garden land at low rentals, and rights to 

 pasture livestock in openings in the forests. 



In Prussia, workers are allowed to take limited quantities of fire- 

 wood at 70 percent of the forest base price (38). A person employed 

 for 15 days a year is entitled to 1 stere (about one-third of a cord) of 

 softwood or 5 steres of twigs; the amount increases with length of 

 employment up to 12 steres (3^ cords) of large wood and 5 steres of 

 twigs for persons employed 200 days in the year. In Thuringia regular 

 workers (heads of households) get 6 steres of softwood or 4 steres of 

 hardwood at SO percent of the base price: women and single workers 

 get less. In Saxony, workers get as much small fuel wood (twigs) 

 as they can carry home, for 10 pfennigs (4 cents) a day. In Mecklen- 

 burg-Schwerin they get free from 2 steres for 40 to 79 days' work, 

 up to 12 steres for more than 240 days. In Prussia, continuously 

 employed workers were allowed (in 1919) to buy up to 30 marks' 

 worth of good timber at the forest base price plus 10 percent, and 

 20 steres (about 5 cords) of small limb wood and 4 steres of larger 

 hardwood fuel or 6 steres of softwood, at the base price. In 1925 the 

 prices were reduced. 



HOUSING AND FARM LAND 



In most parts of central Europe the forest workers — whether 

 farmers or industrial workers — live at home, either in villages or on 

 their farms, where these are located outside of villages. Except in 

 the mountains they usually live close enough to the forests so that 

 they can go home at night, either on foot or on bicycles. In the 

 mountain districts, such as the Bavarian and Austrian Alps and the 

 Harz region, much of the work is so far from the villages that the 

 workers have to live in the woods. In these cases cabins (Herbergen^ 

 are usually provided, equipped with bunks, straw mattresses, and 

 facilities for cooking. Large logging camps are not common ; usually 

 a relatively small crew of men works in one place, and they usually go 

 home over the week ends. In camp, each man furnishes and cooks 

 his own food, over a common stove in the middle of the combined 

 living and sleeping quarters. The newer camps contain separate 

 rooms for living, cooking, and sleeping (14)- An attempt was made 

 in Prussia to introduce community eating, with camp cooks, but the 

 workers preferred to bring and prepare their own food. 



