FORESTS AND EMPLOYMENT IN GERMANY 15 



Quite a different picture is presented by region F, the high moun- 

 tains of southern Upper Bavaria. This, because of its rough topog- 

 raphy and high altitudes, is not so thickly settled as the other regions, 

 and farming is less important. In consequence the number of forest 

 workers living on farms is lower than elsewhere, and the percentage of 

 occasional workers is relatively large. The average size of farm occu- 

 pied by forest workers is much larger than in any of the other regions ; 

 more than half of the farms exceed 8.4 acres in area. 



Regions C and D, which constitute the Palatinate (Bavaria west of 

 the Rhine), resemble each other as far as land ownership by regular 

 workers is concerned, but region D (the Rhine lowlands) has a rela- 

 tively large number of occasional workers (the highest percentage of 

 any region except E) and region C has relatively the fewest. In both 

 these regions the farms are exceedingly small; 94 to 99 percent of them 

 are less than 8.4 acres in size, and approximately 60 percent are less 

 than 2.5 acres. 



In the rest of the State (region B), which includes much of the low- 

 lands and rolling, hilly country as well as the Jura, more or less average 

 conditions prevail. Most of the workers are classed as regular em- 

 ployees, two-thirds of them live on farms, and three-fourths of these 

 farms range from 2.5 to 16.8 acres in area. 



EMPLOYMENT POLICIES 



In some parts of western Germany, timber cutting may be considered 

 almost a profession. The art — and at its best it is an art — has been 

 handed down from father to son through many generations. This is 

 particularly true in such regions as the Bavarian Alps, the Fichtelge- 

 birge, the Bavarian Forest of eastern Bavaria, the Thuringian Forest, 

 the Black Forest, the Erzgebirge of Saxony, and the Harz Mountains. 

 It is also true of parts of the Austrian Alps, where the workers have 

 practically an hereditary claim to employment in the public forests. 

 The workers in these regions have developed great skill in felling, 

 cutting up, and skidding out the timber, so that not only is the logging 

 done efficiently from the standpoint of cost, but a minimum of damage 

 is done to the forest. The skill with which large trees — 2 or 3 feet in 

 diameter and 100 to 150 feet tall— can be felled and pulled out prac- 

 tically without injury to the surrounding young growth is almost 

 uncanny. The regular forest workers in these districts are regarded 

 with considerable respect as important, substantial members of the 

 community. 



With the expansion of industry and growth of the cities, beginning 

 in the early decades of the nineteenth century, many of the younger 

 workers entered other occupations, attracted by higher wages, better 

 provision for sickness and old age, easier work, better social position, 

 and the more agreeable life of the cities. This process, well under way 

 by 1850, had gone so far by 1890 that there was a shortage of woods 

 workers (38). It was impossible to hire enough girls to do planting 

 and other cultural work, because they preferred to work as servants 

 in the cities. It was necessary, therefore, to employ men for this work, 

 but they cost more and did less satisfactory work. As a result, much 

 of the early weeding and thinning that should have been done was 

 omitted. The yield of the forests was thereby impaired in quantity 

 and in quality. 



