160 



[February, 1909. 



TIMBERS. 



WHAT FORESTRY HAS DONE. 



The following extract is reprinted 

 from Circular 140, Forest Service, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture :— 



{Continued from page ^50, Nov. 1008.) 



AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. 



Austria. 



In Austria, which has been independent 

 of the German Federation only since 

 1866, forestry has, in the main, followed 

 German lines. Austria-Hungary is one 

 of the largest exporters of wood, and the 

 yearly exportations reach 3,670,000 tons. 

 Germany takes more than half of the 

 exports, and the rest is distributed to 

 Italy, Russia and Switzerland. 



Austria has 21,000,000 acres of forest, 

 of which only 7 per cent, belongs to the 

 State and 58 per cent, is private land. 

 Communal and entailed forests make up 

 the remainder. Of the private forests 

 34 per cent, is in estates ranging from 

 20,000 to 350,000 acres in area, and for 

 the last fifty years at least 75 per cent, of 

 the total forest area has been held in 

 large, compact bodies. These large 

 blocks are naturally favorable to forest 

 management. Private forestry is further 

 encouraged by the system of forest 

 taxation, which relieves forests in 

 which forestry is practiced. In the 

 United States there are many enormous 

 private forest holdings on which forestry 

 would unquestionably be practiced were 

 it not that excessive or ill-devised forest 

 taxation effectually discourages it. 



The total net revenue from the 

 Austrian State forests is over $5,000,000. 

 The net yearly revenue per acre of 21 

 cents is comparatively low, due mainly 

 to the facts that only fifty-six cents per 

 acre is expended upon the forest, and 

 that most of the area is located in the 

 rugged Alps and Carpathians, where 

 administration and logging are costly. 



The present forest department was 

 started in 1872 in response to a popular 

 outcry against the policy of selling 

 State lands. That policy resulted in 

 reducing the area of State forests from 

 10,000,000 to a little over 7,000,000 acres 

 during the first half of the nineteenth 

 century. The administration was re- 

 organized in 1904, and now has three 

 departments— administration proper, re- 

 forestation and the correction of 

 torrents and forest protection. 



Forestry is successfully practised on 

 60 per cent, of all the Austrian forests 



and on 82 per cent, of the private forests, 

 and excellent results have been secured 

 by co-operation between the State and 

 private persons in forest management, 

 particularly under the law of 1883. The 

 most conspicuous fruit of Austrian 

 forestry, however, is the reforesting of 

 the Karst." The karst was a stretch 

 of barren lands in the hilly country of 

 Istria, Trieste, Dalmatia, Montenegro, 

 and neighbouring territory along the 

 shores of the Adriatic Sea. It comprised 

 some 600,000 acres. For centuries it had 

 furnished the ship timbers and other 

 wood supplies of Venice, but excessive 

 cutting, together with burning and 

 pasturing, the evil results of clearing, 

 and the natural condition of the land, 

 had left it a waste almost beyond re- 

 covery. Many laws had been passed 

 from time to time to stop the forest 

 havoc, but without real effect till 1865. 

 In that year the Government, persuaded 

 by the Forestry Association, began to 

 offer help to landowners who would 

 undertake forest planting. Taxes were 

 remitted for periods of years, technical 

 advice was given, and plant material as 

 well as money was supplied. Further 

 laws were found necessary in 1882 and 

 1887 to meet the objection of stockmen. 

 At the present time over 400,000 acres, or 

 two-thirds of the Karst, have been 

 brought under forest, in part by plant- 

 ing, at a cost of from §8 to $10 an acre, 

 in part by protection and the natural 

 recuperation so made possible. 



This work has been carried on under 

 the direction of the "forest protective 

 service," which was first created for 

 Tyrol in 1856 as a result of floods in the 

 Tryolese Alps in 1851, and was later 

 (1871-1874) extended to the rest of the 

 Empire. This service, which is distinct 

 from the State forest administration, 

 has also been especially helpful in 

 encouraging private forestry. Though 

 at first regarded with hostility, it 

 is now held in high regard on the 

 strength of the work it has done and is 

 doing. 



Harmony of interest between the State 

 and private forest owners, which the 

 whole Austrian forest policy favours, is 

 notably secured by the encouragement 

 of the wood export trade through such 

 provisions as reduced freight rates, the 

 absence of export duties, and moderate 

 forest texation. 



A " reboisement " or reforestation law, 

 based on that of France, was passed in 

 1884 to control torrents. This law 

 carries an annual appropriation of 

 $100,000, and the planting work, like that 



