October, 1908.] 



357 



Timbers. 



The United States, then, in attacking 

 the problem of how best to use its great 

 forest resources, is not in the position of 

 a pioneer in the field. It has the ex- 

 perience of all other countries to go 

 upon. There is no need for years of 

 experiment with untried theories. The 

 forest principles which hundreds of 

 years of actual practice have proved 

 right are at its command. The only 

 question is how should these be modified 

 or extended to best meet American con- 

 ditions. In the management of the 

 National Forests the Government is not 

 working in the dark. Nor is it slavishly 

 copying European countries. It is put- 

 ting into practice, in America and for 

 Americans, principles tried and found 

 correct, which will insure to all the 

 people alike the fullest and best use of 

 all forest resources. 



In the following short history of what 

 forestry has done in other countries, it 

 will be possible to give only the chief 

 facts. Yet even in this incomplete 

 review two things stand out with strik- 

 ing clearness. One is that those coun- 

 tries which have gone farthest in the 

 practice of forestry are the ones which 

 today are most prosperous, which have 

 the least proportion of waste land, and 

 which have the most promising futures. 

 The other is that those countries which 

 spend most upon their forests receive 

 from them the greatest net returns. 



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 persons own 28*6 per cent. 

 The communal holdings are constantly 

 growing by the purchase of private 

 lands. The general government, or 

 Bund, owns no forests. Prom $6,000,000 

 to §8,000,000 worth of wood (300,000 tons) 

 and wooden-ware are annually imported. 

 This comes mainly from Austria-Hun- 

 gary, 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 Berne 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 manage- 

 ment 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 ex- 

 pended, to $3 or §9 per acre in the city 

 forests, where most is expended. 



Forest regulations came very early in 

 Switzerland. .The first .forest ordinance 

 ot Berne was issued 600 years ago. The 

 city forest of Zurich, famous as the 

 bihlwald, has been managed under a 

 working plan since 1680, and is today one 

 ot the most perfectly managed and 

 most profitable forests in the world. 

 It yields, on the average, a clear annual 

 profit of §12 per acre. From time to 

 time, as the evidence shows, the Swiss 

 people stood in dread of a timber famine 

 Ordinances were passed forbidding the 

 reduction of the forest area, the making 

 of clearings, and the exportation of 

 wood from one Canton to another. In 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, a« 

 modern industrial life began, various 

 Cantons sought to follow the examples 

 which Berne and Zurich 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 pro- 

 vision was made for an annual appro- 

 priation of §2,000 to the Swiss Forestry 

 Association for engineering and reforest- 

 ing work in the Alps. In 1871 the Bundes- 

 rath was empowered to carry on this 

 work, with an annual appropriation of 

 §20,000 After the flood of 1868, §200,000 of 

 the collections made for the relief 

 of the sufferers was devoted to refor- 

 estation. In 1876 the Bund assumed 

 supervision of the water and forest 

 police in the high Alps above a certain 

 elevation, and undertook to 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 policy 

 was firmly fixed by a revision of the 

 existing law. 



All the Swiss forests comprised in the 

 Bund are now classified as protection 

 and non-protection 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 forbid- 

 den, and all wood must be filled and mea- 

 sured under the direction of a forest 

 officer. Otherwise privately-owned 

 protection forests are supervised in the 

 main as are those publicly owned. Non* 



