16 



Although wages were gradually raised and better houses and working 

 conditions provided, this was done too slowly. As a result, the per- 

 manent forest workers practically disappeared in most regions, as the 

 older ones died, and were replaced by part-time industrial workers 

 and farm laborers and by small farmers who cared less for high wages 

 than for assured supplies of firewood and of litter for bedding. By 

 1900, there were very few full-time forest workers in western Germany 

 (outside of the Harz and a few other regions), excepting the foremen. 

 Since then, the situation has improved with better wages and working 

 conditions, so that it has usually not been difficult to get enough 

 workers. In East Prussia, forest work has always been an adjunct of 

 agriculture and nearly all woods workers are farmers or local artisans. 



The present policy is generally to build up and maintain a force of 

 regular workers — not necessarily engaged on a full-time basis, but 

 employed year after year, and so far as possible rooted to the land. 

 The recent trend toward more intensive silviculture demands skilled, 

 dependable, careful workers, who were not so essential under the old 

 mass-production methods of clear-cutting and artificial regeneration 

 of pure stands. 



Wagner {39) points out the advantages of giving steady employ- 

 ment to as many workers as possible, except in case of small farmers 

 who need such work only in the winter. He says: 



Wood cutters, as well as persons engaged in planting and other cultural opera- 

 tions, being skilled workers, must be employed as continuously as possible. 

 Irregular work easily results in unskilled workers, because it offers only an un- 

 certain support, because skill and practice are lost and because the irregular 

 worker is little inclined to equip himself with the best and consequently the more 

 costly tools and to keep them in good condition. Also in forestry the fact de- 

 serves especial consideration that the permanent worker feels especially concerned 

 with the weal and woe of the forest, his regular working place, and therefore is 

 ready to defend it from harm. 



In selecting workers now, preference is given to established residents 

 of the community, preferably those owning some property, but not 

 enough to be self-supporting without the forest job. Part-time 

 workers settled on the property of the employer are also favored. 

 Before the depression it was necessary in many places to hire transient 

 workers because not enough others were available, but now most of 

 these are employed only on an emergency basis, through various relief 

 funds. Some of the -large private estates in Austria and Czecho- 

 slovakia, and presumably also in Germany, have kept their regular 

 workers employed during the depression, even at a financial loss, in 

 order not to lose experienced workers who will be needed later. The 

 same policy has been pursued in many of the State forests. In East 

 Prussia, for example, men have been given yearlong jobs building 

 roads and making other improvements when not engaged in logging. 



Present employment policies in Germany tend to favor men over 

 women, and particularly men with families. However, men are not 

 considered satisfactory for some kinds of forest work, from the stand- 

 point of either cost or efficiency. This is especially true of planting 

 and cultural operations in very young stands. It is asserted that 

 women take more pains than men in planting and in weeding opera- 

 tions. The peasant women are physically able to do this kind of 

 work, because they are accustomed to doing a major portion of the 

 work on the farms. Logging and similar heavy work, such as road 



