14 



give aid in the work of engineering and reforesting for the control 

 of the Alpine torrents. Since 1898 the Bund has supervised all this 

 work, and in 1902 the present forest policy was firmly fixed by a re- 

 vision of the existing law. 



All the Swiss forests comprised in the Bund are now classified as 

 protection and nonprotection forests. Whether public or private 

 they are all controlled by the government. In protection forests all 

 cuttings must be such as to preserve the protective value of the forest 

 cover intact, and for this reason clean cutting is usually forbidden. 

 In such forests stumpage sales are forbidden, and all wood must be 

 felled and measured under the direction of a forest officer. Other- 

 wise, privately-owned protection forests are supervised in the main as 

 are those publicly owned. Nonprotection forests are also subject to 

 a number of regulations. When they are in private hands clearings 

 may be made only wdth consent of the Canton, logged areas must be 

 reforested within three years, and existing forest pastures must be 

 maintained. 



^Yhere protection forests can be created by planting, this may be 

 ordered, and where forests are converted to farming land or pasture 

 an equal area may be ordered reforested. Wliere barren ground is 

 required to be forested for protective purposes, the Bund assists by 

 paying from 30 to 50 per cent of the cost. Between 1876 and 1902 

 16,000 acres were reforested at a cost of $1,000,000, in round numbers; 

 the Bund having paid one-half. 



Grazing has been regulated for centuries. In protection forests it 

 is entirely prohibited ; but on all the rest of the forests gTeat success 

 has attended the efforts of the forest service to safeguard both pas- 

 turage and the forest by supervision and range improvement. De- 

 spite differences in local conditions, the experience of Switzerland in 

 forest grazing is, therefore, strongly in support of tlip policies whicli 

 are directing the efforts of our own Forest Service. Indeed, the ex- 

 perience of all Europe shows the necessity of controlling the public 

 range. 



To sum up, forestry in Switzerland, where ever}^ foot of agricul- 

 tural land is of the greatest value, has made it possible for the people 

 to farm all land fit for crops, and so has assisted the country to sup- 

 port* a larger population, and one that is more prosperous, than would 

 be the case if the valleys were subjected to destructive floods. In a 

 country as small as Switzerland, and one which contains so many 

 high and rugged mountains, this is a service the benefits of which 

 can not be measured in dollars. It is in Switzerland also, in the Sihl- 

 Avald, that forestry demonstrates beyond contradiction how great a 

 yield in wood and money it may bring about if applied consistently 

 for a number of years. 



[Cir. 140] 



