s 



CIRCULAR 4 71, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



In general, sustained-yield forestry means more work and steadier 

 work than intermittent exploitation. Temporarily, there may be a 

 large volume of work in exploiting the timber crop and in restocking 

 the cut-over land, but then follows a long period with relatively little 

 work until the next crop is ready to cut. Such intermittent operation 

 is no longer practiced on a large scale in Germany except when 

 necessitated by natural calamities such as insect epidemics or severe 

 wind throw or ice storms. Extensive insect defoliation in eastern 

 Germany in recent years has in some instances required importation 

 of workers from other sections to cut the dead timber and replant the 

 denuded areas. Afterward, the local workers, who had always earned 

 part of their living in the forests, were left without prospect of forest 

 employment for many years (35). 



Mixed forests tend to offer more employment opportunities and a 

 greater variety of work than pure forests of pine or spruce. They 

 yield a wider "variety of products, and more intensive cultural opera- 

 lions are sometimes required to establish and maintain the desired 

 mixtures. 



KINDS OF FOREST WORK 



It may be of some interest to consider what kinds of jobs are per- 

 formed in the German forests. The statistics for the Bavarian State 

 forests (5) show how the work is distributed among the principal lines 

 of activity. Roughly half of the total employment is in timber cutting 

 and skidding. Planting and other cultural work come next, and road 

 construction is also an important item (table 7). 



Table 7. — Employment in Bavarian State forests, by main activities, 1913, 1920, 



and 1929-33 





1913 



19201 



1929 



1930 



1931 



1932 



1933 



Activity 



Regu- 

 lar 



Emer- 

 gency 





1,000 

 days 

 2,410 

 1, 187 



727 

 263 



1,000 

 days 

 3,955 



815 

 1,183 



947 



1,000 

 days 

 2,200 

 1,024 

 662 

 517 



1,000 



days 



2,012 



720 



601 



492 



1,000 



days 



1,538 



584 



336 



451 



1,000 



days 



1,520 



240 



186 

 241 



1,000 



days 



1, 674 



154 



141 



271 



1,000 

 days 



Planting and cultural operations 



510 



810 



Other .-_. 



9 







Total -- 



4,587 



Days 

 2.2 



6,900 



Days 

 3.3 



4,403 



Days 

 2.1 



3,725 



Days 

 1.8 



2,909 



Days 

 1.4 



2,187 



Days 

 1.0 



2,240 



Days 

 1. 1 



1,322 





Days 

 0.6 







i A large amount of emergency work to relieve unemployment was done in 1920. 



Each of these main lines of activity embraces numerous kinds of 

 jobs. Many of these, of course, are similar to work done in American 

 forests; others are practically or entirely unknown in American 

 forestry, either because such measures are not called for under 

 American conditions or because they involve refinements not yet 

 economically justifiable in this country. A partial list of the jobs 

 performed by German forest workers includes the following: 



