FORESTS AND EMPLOYMENT IN GERMANY 6 



from rural districts into the cities and by establishing more people in 

 the less densely populated districts, especially near the frontiers. 

 Another aim is to main tain a stable rural population of small farmers 

 and industrial workers attached, through ownership, to the land. In 

 attaining these objectives it is obvious that the forest land, comprising 

 more than one-fourth of the land area and mostly submarginal for 

 agriculture, must do its part. 



In presenting the results of the study, the aim has been to state 

 the facts objectively, without venturing to pass judgment on the 

 desirability of the past or present social and political institutions. 

 Emplojmient in the public forests has been emphasized, for several 

 reasons. First, employment statistics are available only for the 

 public forests. Secondly, more than half of the German forest is in 

 public ownership of one form or another. More than half of the 

 remainder is in small woodlots operated mostly by the owners and 

 their families, and less than one-sixth is in privately owned tracts 

 larger than 500 hectares (1,235 acres). In the third place, the public 

 forests more or less set the standard for the larger sustained-yield 

 forests in private ownership. 



VOLUME OF EMPLOYMENT IN GERMAN FORESTS 3 



Perhaps the best indication of the number of people supported in 

 whole or in part by the forest resource is the number employed in 

 producing, tending, and harvesting the forest crop and in processing 

 forest products. In Germany and in neighboring portions of central 

 Europe the aggregate numbers thus employed are surprisingly large, 

 judged by American standards. The State forests of Prussia, for 

 instance, with an area of a little more than 6,000,000 acres, gave direct 

 employment to 147,000 workers in the peak year (1926). This was in 

 woods work alone; it did not include teamsters and others engaged in 

 hauling timber from the forests, nor the forest officers, of whom there 

 were about 4,500. 



One reason for the large numbers employed is the highly intensive 

 forest management and utilization which characterize much of central 

 European forestry. Another reason is the prevalence of hand work in 

 practically all phases of forestry operations. The major reason, how- 

 ever, is the fact that by far the majority of all forest workers are 

 employed in the woods for only a part of the year. The women and 

 children, who are employed in large numbers for a few weeks during 

 the spring and fall planting seasons, may or may not have other em- 

 ployment beyond their ordinary farm and household duties. A few 

 women are employed for longer periods in forest nurseries and in cer- 

 tain cultural operations. Most of the men work for part of the year 

 on their farms or in local industries. In normal times relatively few 

 come from the more distant cities. The period of greatest activity in 

 most forests is winter and early spring, when farm work and employ- 

 ment in local building trades and other industries are slack. Woods 

 work constitutes, in this respect, almost an ideal part-time occupation 

 for farmers and their teams and for village artisans. Nearly all of the 

 regular, so-called full-time forest workers work on their farms at least 

 during the harvest. 



The German forests, therefore, not only support a large number of 



3 A brief summary of comparable conditions in Austria is given in the appendix, p. 51. 



