GERMAN FOREST MANAGEMENT — FOREST REGULATION. 241 



III. Forest districting. Division of forest into parcels or lots and aggregation of lots into blocks and ranges. In the 



plain, rectangular lots, divided by cleared lines called 1 ides (Gestell), are customary ; in hilly and mountainous 

 country division lines follow the configuration of soil. Differences of soil or character of giowth within lots 

 give rise to formation of snblots. 



IV. Forest yield valuation (assessment). Ascertaining amounts of timber standing, rate of growth on various sites, 



determining capability of production and future yield in mateiial and money. 

 V. Determining plan of management (working plans). General plan for all time; special plans for period of ten to 

 twenty years. Determining length of rotation; amounts annually to be cut, designating lots to be cut, 

 with a view to obtaining favorable distribution of age classes; thinnings to be made; methods to be used 

 in felling and cultures. 



METHODS OF FOREST REGULATION. 



In Prussia it was Frederick the Great who first ordered a regulated administration of the 

 Government forests soon after the beginning of his reign. The first simple prescriptions of 

 dividing the forests into equal areas and cutting every year a proportionate area were followed up 

 with more elaborate ordinances, having in view a closer equalization of the amounts of material 

 harvested and revenues obtained, besides other considerations of management for continuity, until 

 finally the basis for present methods of regulation was reached in the ordinance of 1850, wnce 

 modified in its details, under which " the preservation, revision, and perfection of the work of 

 forest valuation and regulation » is carried on. 



The modus operandi, similar in principle in all Government forest administrations, is about as 

 follows: 



Let us assume that the Government has purchased * a new forest district, comprising, say, 

 10,000 acres, the average size of the existing districts. The necessary surveys and blank maps, 

 as explained, have been made and the boundaries carefully established in the field, the division 

 into compartments or parcels, larger or smaller according to the need of a more or less intensive 

 management, have been noted on the maps and marked on the ground (the avenues perhaps 

 partially opened), and for the sake of satisfactory administration a number of the parcels have 

 been combined into subdistricts, "blocks," or ranges; and thus the first—purely geometrical — 

 basis for a rational administration has been established. Now the arithmetical basis is to be 

 ascertained. For this, in the first place, a general description of the district in its present 

 condition is desirable, parts of which, however, can be furnished only after the more thorough 

 measurements described later. Such a description recites all needful knowledge regarding the 

 extent, the manner of division, the boundaries, and the legal rights. Next follows a description 

 in general terms of topography, climate, and soil conditions, and of the forest growth, being a 

 condensation of the special description by parcels. The manner of tieatment hitherto, the market 

 conditions, current market prices, and usual wages are noted. Then, after recital of the processes 

 and methods by which the information in the following detail work has been obtained, the principles 

 adopted for the management and its motivation are stated, forming a general guide for the manager 

 for all time. 



These principles are formulated by a commission after sufficient general knowledge of the 

 condition of the district is obtained. In this important part of the general description not only 

 the territorial partition of the district into compartments and blocks or ranges is determined, and 

 reasons given for it, but also the system of management for each block or parts of blocks, whether 



1 Prices ioi forest soil vary, of course, according to their location and condition, just as iu our country. In 1849 

 Bavana sold 27,000 acres of her fcstate forests at $68 per acre. In Prussia the Go\ eminent has lately (1881-1887) paid 

 prices ranging from $5 to $60 per acre, and for a lonnd 70,000 acres the price per acre was $21 average. These were 

 mostly de\astated waste lands in the northern plain. In Thuringia, where prices for wood and land are higher, the 

 price tor ioiest land is from $20 to $60 and as high as $80. These prices do not, of course, include any timber growth, 

 the value of which, if piesent, is calculated according to well-known careful methods of determining " expectation 

 values." According to a calculation by Dr. J. Lehr, based on the net income as representing interest at a 3 per cent 

 rate, and assuming a ninety-year rotation of the foiest growth for the entire Geiman Empire, the forest land was 

 worth $25 per acre and the wood on it $156 per acre. 



H. Doc. 181 1G 



