13 



SWITZERLAND. 



In Switzerland, which has 2,000,000 acres, or 20.6 per cent of its 

 area, in forest, the communal forests are the largest, and make up 67 

 per cent of the total ; the cantons own 4.5 per cent ; and private per- 

 sons own 28.6 per cent. The communal holdings are constantly grow- 

 ing by the purchase of private lands. The general government, or 

 Bund, owns no forests. From $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 worth of wood 

 (300,000 tons) and wooden ware are annually imported. This comes 

 mainly from Austria-Hungary, southern Germany, and France. 



The State forests yield about 64 cubic feet per acre, the corporation 

 forests 42 cubic feet; the average yield of both together is about 45 

 cubic feet. The average wood growth per acre has been estimated to 

 be 50 cubic feet. In the State forests of Bern the figures show a 

 growth of 50 cubic feet for the plateau country, 73 cubic feet for the 

 middle country, and 75 cubic feet in the Jura. Wood prices, which 

 are higher than in Germany, have been rising for forty years. 



The expenditures in forest management vary greatly among the 

 Cantons, ranging from $1.50 to $7 per acre. The net annual returns 

 range from $3 per acre in the forests where least is expended, to $8 

 or $9 per acre in the city forests, where most is expended. 



Forest regulations came very early in Switzerland. The first for- 

 est ordinance of Bern was issued 600 years ago. The city forest of 

 Ziirich, famous as the Sihlwald, has been managed under a working 

 plan since 1680, and is to-day one of the most perfectly managed 

 and most profitable forests in the world. It yields, on the average, 

 a clear annual profit of $12 an acre. From time to time, as the evi- 

 dence shows, the Swiss people stood in dread of a timber famine. 

 Ordinances vv^ere passed forbidding the reduction of the forest area, 

 the making of clearings, and the exportation of wood from one Can- 

 ton to another. In the middle of the eighteenth century, as modern 

 industrial life began, various Cantons sought to follow the examples 

 which Bern and Ziirich had set in forestry. A severe flood in 1830 

 brought home the need of more vigorous measures in guarding 

 against torrents. The floods of 1834 and 1868 further enforced the 

 lesson. An investigation of Swiss forest conditions was ordered by 

 the Bund in 1857, and the same year provision was made for an an- 

 nual appropriation of $2,000 to the Swiss Forestry Association for 

 engineering and reforesting work in the Alps. In 1871 the Bundes- 

 rath was empowered to carry on this work, with an annual appro- 

 priation of $20,000. After the flood of 1868 $200,000 of the collec- 

 tions made for the relief of the sufferers was devoted to reforesta- 

 tion. In 1876 the Bund assumed supervision of the water and forest 

 police in the High Alps above a certain elevation, and undertook to 



[Gil-. 140] 



