Pinchet, Gifford Government forestry abroad LIBRARY FACULTY OF FORESTRY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEC 6 - 1966 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/1 governmentforesOOpincuoft PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. or. Vio. 3. | t Six NUMBKRS & TEAR PRICK $4.00 A YRAR. 1. Government Forestry Abroad, By GIFFORD PINCHOT. I. The Present Condition of the Forests on the Public Lands, By EDWARD A. BOWERS, Secretary of the American Forestry Association. (Formerly Inspector of Public Lands.) IIL. Practicability of an American Forest Administration, By B. E. FERNOW, Chief of Forestry Division, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C- AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. May, 1891. COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. BALTIMORE: FROM THE PRESS OF GUGGENHEIMER, WEIL & Co. 1831, TABLE OF CONTENTS. Il. Tue Present Conpirion or THE Forest on THE PUBLIC Exaps. | By powArp A. BOWERS: j..4.c- + sss-3-+ Se eetee III. Pracricapiniry or AN AMERICAN Forest ADMINISTRATION. Bye bie Bie SERN OW. cic ss -n- <>" Merah S Rader isa Sates eee. IVE PAP REND LSM EROLOSED!BliTin cece. fate a se eek amo le 44564 2. Vs + * "St I. GovERNMENT Forestry Aproap. By Girrorp Princnot... 5 Germanyea: s:eaei.ct yee Bie etre tere phere chaks a Shee te eniaes Bre) PONG Gees \tapgrmsrctes ehita Sw Sse cd vhs ar ots oad Blake sey ahesabehaite tol gui Sen! SWLGASRIAN Gs ho xia a wie aereet ewes bos Seales ensy aims Nets) a oe aaah Oe PRUISUNAINGSR tot tee sks ee Se ERS Ae Lara t ree aU sr vase TAZ, Hadiag.c.. t. RPT ee OS Pee > oe) aCe Sane 5 AD SOMEUMMAE TLC (Oso raiwta)/e cies wes « Fs HOES Pay aoe be 50 Other Countries........ FOR Sho nc ad ROE IE SE, 3 He sy The three papers on Forest Administration here printed together were read at the joint session of the American Economic Association and the American Forestry Association, at Washington, D. 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BY GIFFORD PINCHOT, The following article has been rather hastily pre- pared from such materials and experience as the writer was able to command, and while from the nature of the case it cannot claim to be a compre- hensive treatment of the subject, it is believed that the statements and statistics which it contains are accurate. Germany, France and Switzerland have been dwelt upon more at length, both because forestry has reached a wider development there, and because the writer can speak concerning them from personal observation. The history of the forest has developed itself along similar lines in all the countries of Europe. Its course in. the central part of the Continent, which may be taken as fairly representative of what it was else- where, is thus briefly summarized. At first the forest held the same relation to man as to the game upon which he lived. His demand upon it was insignificant, but, as he advanced in the scale of civilization, he began to call upon the forest for greater supplies of timber, and especially for the pasturage of his herds. Until comparatively recent times this was the chief service which gave the wood loa) Government Forestry Abroad. [192 lands value. The increasing density of population and the more complicated needs of life then gave gradual rise to more vigorous attacks upon the forest. For a time the demand was small and the areas cut over easily covered themselves with young growth. The forest renewed itself and maintained its pro- ductive power. But, as the demand increased, the areas cut over increased with it, and the actual re- growth no longer kept pace with the quantity of timber which it was called upon to yield. At the same time the land needed for agriculture was being taken from the timbered area, and the wood lands, attacked along two lines, were beginning to suffer seriously. “Tt is true,’ says Dr. Gayer,! “‘that the forest belonged at that time chiefly to the herdsmen and the game, but the steadily increasing tendency to destruction of a growing population made the general cultivation of the chase an undoubted advantage to the forest. Indeed the hunter has been at all times one of its bestfriends. For numerous acts of violence may be referred to, extending over the whole of medieval times, as a result of which much free land belonging to the early communities, or the rights to its enjoyment, passed in course of time into the hands of the rulers. From a legal standpoint these are indeed events to be deplored, and from them the oppressive burden of actual prescriptive rights takes its rise, but the present extensive State forest holdings in Germany have chiefly to thank this universal love of venerie for their existence. ‘«Tt is unquestionably true that the forests have been at no time in a more deplorable condition than in the second half of the Middle Ages, and thence on to the middle of the last century. The results which must follow this condition of affairs were evident, and led to the most serious fears of a widespread timber famine. And although this foreboding, as it filled the minds of men toward the end of the Medieval period, and as it was brought to the attention of the people through numerous publications, may have been exag- gerated, nevertheless, in view of the commercial relations of the ‘Der Wald im Wechsel der Zeiten. Inaugural address as Rector of the University of Munich, November, 1889. 193] Government Forestry Abroad. 9 time and the narrow boundaries of supply, it was on the whole by no means unjustified. It gave, at least, the first impulse to economy. Under the influence of this universal sentiment, but perhaps caused even more by the interest in hunting and in the security of the rights of property, a gradual change for the better appeared in the destiny of the forest. Its importance as a national treasure had at allevents penetrated the minds of the more intelligent classes. “There begins nowa time of restless work in the forest, a time of struggle for its preservation and rehabilitation, the results of which no other nation has realized so fully as the German. “Apart from the measures which were demanded by the security .of property and the economical ordering of forest utilization, the efforts of the forester were chiefly directed to the regeneration of the forest. This was accomplished in those regions which had partially escaped destruction by the assistance of the free regenera- tive power of nature, in the totally devastated areas by artificial means. The rational treatment of the wood lands had begun.’’ All forest management may be said to rest on two closely related facts which are so self-evident that they might almost be called axioms of forestry, but which, like other axioms, lead to conclusions of far- reaching application. These are, first, that trees require many years to reach merchantable size; and, secondly, that a forest crop cannot be taken every year from the same land. From the last statement it follows that a definite, far-seeing plan is necessary for the rational management of any forest, from the first; that forest property is safest under the super- vision of some imperishable guardian; or, in other words, of the State. GERMANY. It is natural in treating the subject of State for- estry to begin with Germany, since it is here that it has reached its furthest development and most stable condition. In Germany, then, the forests cover an 10 Government Forestry Abroad. [194 area of 13,908,398 hectares, or 26 per cent. of the total surface of the country. It is extremely significant, in view of the popular talk about the «:inexhausti- ble’’ forest resources of the United States, to note that the latest available data put the percentage of wooded land in our country also at 26 per cent. It is true that the relative density of population in the two countries is a factor which enters largely into such a comparison, but it is equally true as regards the relative economy in the use of wood, and the fact that Germany is very far from supplying her own demand for timber. Further, the contrast between the permanent productive powers of the German and American wood lands, as they stand at present, adds another somber tint to the picture of our condition. In Germany, the State either owns or controls about two-thirds of the forest area, and for these lands the point of lowest production has been past. It is coming for us at a time when the need of timber is at its highest. It is necessary when dealing with forest policy in the German Empire to treat independently the differ- ent States of which it is composed. Differences in forest organization and management have arisen through differences in politics and geography, even a superficial examination of which would exceed both the space and the scope of the present paper, and it is fortunately the less needful to go into so extended a discussion, because one common principle hes at the root of forest policy in each of them, and may be fully illustrated by reference to any one. This principle, special to no country or form of gov- ernment, holds that «‘the State is the guardian of all public interests.”’ It is in its interpretation that, for 195] (rovernment Forestry Abroad. 11 the purposes of this paper, its chief interest lies. From this point of view ‘public interests ’’ must be taken to mean all interests other than private ones. So understood, this maxim may be said to sum up the forest policy of nearly all the nations of Europe. as well under republican as under governments of a distinctly paternal character. The Kingdom of Prussia, both as the head of the German Bund and as the State which has developed the forest organization most worthy to be taken as an example, will furnish the completest illustration. Covering an area of some 8,153,946 hectares, the forests of Prussia occupy 23.4 per cent. of the total surface of the country. Of this wood land it may be said roughly that one-third is stocked with decidu- ous trees, and two-thirds with the less demanding conifers, a reversal of the old conditions, which is largely due to the deterioration of the soil and to the fact that the richer ground has been rightly claimed for agricultural uses. The ownership, a point of capital importance in relation to our subject, is di- vided as follows: To the State belong nearly 2,718,- 256 hectares, or 29 per cent.; to towns, village com- munities and other public bodies, 1,302,508 hectares, or 16 per cent., and to private owners 4,382,251 hectares, or 55 per cent. The relation of the State to the forests which it owns is simple and rational, based as it is on the idea that its ownership will be permanent. Holding it as a duty to preserve the wood lands for the present share which they take in the economy of the nation, the State has recognized as well the obligation to hand down its forest wealth unimpaired to. future generations, It has recognized and re- 12 Government Forestry Abroad. [196 spected equally the place which the forest holds in relation to agriculture and in the economy of nature, and hence feels itself doubly bound to protect its wood lands. In a word, it has seen that in its direct and indirect influence, the forest plays a most important part in the story of human progress, and that the advance of civilization only serves to make it more indis- pensable. It has, therefore, steadily refused to deliver its forests to more or less speedy destruction, by allowing them to pass into the hands of shorter lived and less provident owners. Even in the times of greatest financial difficulty, whén Prussia was overrun and nearly annihilated by the French, the idea of selling the State forests was never seriously entertained. But the government of Prussia has not stopped here. Protection standing alone is irrational and incomplete. The cases where a forest reaches its highest usefulness by simply existing are rare. The immense capital which the State wood lands repre: sent is not permitted to lie idle, and the forest, as a timber producer, has taken its place among the per- manent features of the land. The government has done the only wise thing by managing its own forests through its own forest officers. The organization of the Forest Service is briefly as follows: At its head stands the Department, or more correctly, the Ministry of Agriculture, State lands and forests, which exercises general supervision over forest affairs through the medium of the (Oberland- forstmeister) chief of Forest Service. A part of this central office is the Bureau of Forest Surveys and Working Plans, a factor of very great impor- 197] Government Forestry Abroad. 13 tance in the general organization. A working plan is the scheme according to which the technical busi- ness of a forest range is carried out. <‘‘Its object,’’ says Dr. Judeich,' ‘“‘is so to order the management of a forest in time and space as to fulfill to the utmost the objects of this management.’ The following sub- division of the general subject of working plans is taken from his admirable work, ‘‘ Die Forsteinrich- tung.’’ The first section is entitled <‘ Preliminary Work,’ under which are included: forest surveys, forest or timber estimating (which includes ‘the in- vestigation of all conditions inherent in the forest which have an influence on its present yield, or which are of importance for the calculation of its yield in the future;’’ that is, the very thorough study and description of both soil and timber), a study of the general and external conditions by which it is affected (its topography, history, ownership, nature of the surrounding land and people, and any other consid- erations which may influence its management), and, lastly, maps and records. The second section, which may be called Forest Division for want of a better English name, con- siders the formation of ranges, each of which is in charge of an executive officer, then the division of the range into units of management called blocks, each of which is treated to a certain extent inde- pendently of the others. and into compartments, which are generally well over a hundred acres in extent, and are marked on the ground by open lanes and boundary stones. This second section contains also less important matters which cannot be touched on here. 1 Die Forsteinrichtung. 4th Ed. Dresden, 1885. 14 Government Forestry Abroad. [198 The third section, Determination of the Yield, explains the various methods of calculating and fixing the amount of timber which a given forest may be safely called upon to yield. The next section treats of the construction of the working plans proper; that is, ‘‘of that document in which the essential results of the preliminary work, the determination of the yield and the regu- lation of the management are so put together that they may serve asa ouide: . ./ "sto uhevexecu- tive officer of the range.”’ The final section relates to the posting and con- tinuation of the working plans, especially as regards the periodic revisions, which take place in general at intervals of five and ten years. Next in authority to the department just mentioned is the Bezirksregierung, a council in charge of one of the thirty-five minor divisions of the Prussian State, which has full control over forest business within its sphere of action. The members of the controlling staff, the Oberfoérstmeister and Forst- meister, are also members of this council. Their duties lie in the inspection of the officers of the executive staff, of whom there are 681 in Prussia. These officers, styled Oberfoérster, are charged with the actual management of the public forest lands, and it is on them that the security of public interest in the forests chiefly rests. Upon their selection and education the utmost care and forethought are ex- pended. Their course of training, one which has produced perhaps the most efficient forest staff of the present day, is briefly as follows: It begins, after graduation from a gymnasium, with a year of practical work 199 | Government Forestry Abroad, 15 under some experienced Oberforster, to enter which the candidate is required to show, besides his certifi- cate of graduation, that he is under twenty-two years of age; that he has certain moral and physical qualities, and that his financial resources are suffi- cient to carry him through his whole forest educa- tion. The object of this preparatory year is to intro- duce the beginner to the forest and its management; to enable him to become acquainted with the more important forest trees: to take part in planting and felling and the protection of the forest: to do a little surveying, and last, but by no means least, to learn to hunt. It may be said in passing that the love of hunting, which the Prussian forest service is careful to encourage, has very much to do with the faithfulness and efficiency of its individual members. Great stress is rightly laid on this year of prepara- tory work, chiefly because of the vastly greater force and reality which it gives to the subsequent theo- retical teaching. As one who has suffered from the lack of it, I may perhaps be permitted to bear my testimony to the value of a custom which is unfortunately less widely extended than its merits deserve: but which I hope to see one day established in the forest schools of our land. The young Prussian forester who has had the good fortune to pass through this preliminary year next spends two years at a forest school, presumably either Miinden or Neustadt Eberswalde, both of which are in Prussia, and like all other similar German schools, are supported by the State. The candidate may, if he chooses, attend any of the other forest schools, of which Germany numbers six (Aschaffenburg and the Forest School of the Munich University, which 16 Government Forestry Abroad. [200 together form one complete institution; Tharand, Tiibingen, Karlsruhe, Giesen and Eisenach), but he must cover the same ground as at the institutions which are standard. The technical school is fol- lowed by a year of jurisprudence and political econ- omy at some university, and the young forester then comes up for the first State examination. He must present with his credentials the maps and field notes of a plot surveyed and a level run, as well as a tim- ber map covering at least 1,235 acres, all his own work. The examination itself bears first on forestry, in which it requires a thorough knowledge of the general theory as to silviculture, working plans, cal- culation of the volume and yield of standing timber, its capital and selling value, the utilization of forest produce, forest technology. protection and_ police, and forest history and lterature. In mathematics it demands about what is included up to the second year of one of our colleges, and in surveying the requirements are somewhat larger. Zoology, botany and mineralogy, especially the second, are strongly insisted on, while chemistry, physics and law com- mand a smaller share of attention. The examination is followed by at least two years of travel and work, during which the candidate, now promoted to the title of referendar, must perfect himself in the field and office management of a for- est range. For this purpose he is required to spend five months in the practical administration of a range, under the responsibility of an Oberférster. and four months in the preparation of working plans. Half a year, including the months from December to May, is to be passed in the discharge of all the duties of an ordinary forest guard. During this time the 201 | Government Forestry Abroad. 17% referendar is personally responsible for all that goes on in his beat, which must be the same for the whole period. At the end of this rather lengthy preparation comes the much-dreaded final examination, which, like the first, is held partly in doors and partly in the forest. This second test dwells more especially, apart from forestry proper. on law, political economy, finance, forest policy, and the organization of the forest service, but without slighting the laws and lore of hunting. The referendar now becomes forest assessor, and is at length eligible for serious paid employment. The actual career of the forester can hardly be said to begin, however, until the appointment as Ober- forster, for which the assessor has no sort of guar- antee, and which may delay its coming for from six to twelve years. That once obtained, the list of promotion lies open, and includes every grade up to the highest. Still, it must be said that, as a rule, the Prussian Oberférster is wholly satisfied with his position, and very often unwilling to exchange it for one of greater honor and profit. That it should be so is scarcely to be wondered at. The Oberforster, with almost independent control of a range of some 10,000 acres, and, what is of first importance to him, with an exclusive right to the excellent shooting which it usually offers, lives a healthy, active life, about equally divided between the woods, his office and his friends. His pay, which may reach 6,400 marks, including a consolidated allow- ance for horses and the incidentals of his office work, is ridiculously low from our standpoint, but entirely sufficient from his. Promotion means a change from the moderate activity of overseeing the planting and 9 ~ 18 Government Forestry Abroad. [202 felling of his forest, and the quiet of home life, to the constant activity of travel. The stimulus which ambition fails to, give is supplied by the admirable esprit de corps which pervades the whole body of forest officers, and forms here, as elsewhere, the best security for the efficiency and healthy tone of the service. Immediately subordinate to the members of the executive staff are the various grades of forest guards, upon whom the protection of the forest directly and exclusively rests. In general, each guard is in charge of one of the five beats into which the average range is divided. <‘‘The forester (I quote from the Service Instructions) must protect the beat entrusted to him against unlawful utilization, theft and injury, and see to it that the forest and game laws are observed. Heis charged with the execution of the felling, planting and other forest work under the orders of the Oberférster, and he alone delivers all forest produce, on receipt of written instructions, to the persons qualified to receive it.” The training of the protective staff is provided for with a care which in any other land might be thought more suitable for officers of a higher grade, and a period of preparation only less long than that for Oberforster stands before the beginner. But lest the necessity for so long a course of pre- paratory work should seem unduly to enhance the difficulties of forest management, it should be noted here that in countries whose grade of excellence in forest matters is closely second to that of Germany the schooling of forest officers is very considerably shorter. There will be occasion to refer to this matter further on. 203 Government Forestry Abroad. 19 Y Such is in outline the organization of the Prussian forest service. The principles upon which it rests are thus stated by Donner, now Oberlandforstmeister, in a work which carries all the weight of an official document.’ He says: ““The fundamental rules for the management of State forests are these: First, to keep rigidly within the bounds of conservative treatment; and secondly, to attain, consistently with such treatment, the greatest output of most useful products in the shorest time.” And again: ‘““The State believes itself bound, in the administration of its forests, to keep in view the common good of the people, and that. as well with respect to the lasting satisfaction of the demand for timber and other forest produce, as to the numerous other purposes which the forest serves. It holds fast the duty to treat the Govern- ment wood lands as a trust held for the nation as a whole, to the end that it may enjoy for the present the highest satisfaction of its needs for forest produce and the protection which the forest gives, and for all future time, at least an equal share of equal blessings.’’ The same authority elsewhere formulates the gen- eral status of the forest, as follows: “The forest is a trust handed down from former times, whose value lies not only in its immediate production of wood, but also essentially in the benefit to agriculture of its immediate influence on climate, weather protection in various ways, the conservation of the soil, etc. The forest has significance not only for the present nor for its owner alone; it has significance as well for the future and for the whole of the people.” With respect to the second class of forest property. that belonging to towns, villages and other public bodies, it is again impossible to speak for the whole of Germany except upon the broadest lines. The State every where exercises oversight and a degree of control over the management of these forests, but the sphere of its action varies within very wide lhmits. Even within the individual states it does not remain 1 Die Forstliche Verhiiltnisse Preussens, 2d ed., Berlin, 1883. 20 Government Forestry Abroad. 1204 the same. Thus far, however, the action of the Gov- ernment is alike not only throughout Prussia but in all parts of Germany. It prevents absolutely the treatment of any forest of this class under improvi- dent or wasteful methods; nor does it allow any measure to be carried into effect which may deprive posterity of the enjoyment which it has a right to expect. How far the details vary may be gathered from the fact that while in the Prussian provinces of Rhineland and Westphaha the village communities appoint their own forest officers and manage their own forests, subject only to a tolerably close over- sight on the part of the controlling staff, in the for- mer Duchy of Nassau, now Prussian territory, their share in the management does not extend beyond the right to sell the timber cut under the direction of the Government Oberforster, the right and obligation to pay for all the planting and other improvements which may be deemed necessary, and the rather hol- low privilege of expressing their opinion. But how- ever galling so extensive an interference with the rights of property may appear, it is none the less unquestionably true that in France, as well as in sermany, the State management of communal for- ests les at the root of the prosperity of a very large proportion of the peasant population, and the evils which have attended its withdrawal in individual cases are notorious. While on the one hand villages whose taxes are wholly paid by their forests are by no means rare, on the otner the sale of communal forest property in certain parts of Germany in 1848 has been followed with deplorable regularity by the impoverishment of the villages which were unwise enough to allow it. 205 Government Forestry Abroad. 21 y The relations of the State to the third class of for- ests, those belonging to private proprietors, are of a much less intimate nature. The basis of these rela- tions is, however, the same. To quote again from Donner, ‘‘The duty of the State to sustain and further the well being of its citizens regarded as an imperish- able whole, implies for the Government the right and the duty to subject the management of all forests to its inspection and control.’”? This intervention is to be carried, however, ‘‘only so far as may be neces- sary to obviate the dangers which an unrestrained utilization of the forest by its owners threatens to excite, and the rights of property are to be respected to the utmost consistently with such a result.”’ Prus- sia, of all the German countries, has respected these rights most highly, and the Government exerts prac- tically no restraining influence except where the evi- dent results of deforestation would be seriously dan- gerous. Here it may and does guard most jealously the wood lands, whose presence is a necessary safe- guard against certain of the more destructive phe- nomena of nature, and which have been called in general protection forests. Of their many sided influence so much has been said and written of late in America—both truly and falsely—that no farther reference to the subject seems needful. The State leaves open a way of escape for the pri- vate proprietor who finds himself unwilling to suffer such restriction of his rights for the public good, and shows itself willing to buy up areas not only of pro- tection forest but also of less vitally important wood lands. On the other hand, it is ready, with a broad- ness of view which the zeal of forest authorities sometimes unfortunately excludes, to give up to pri- 2A Government Forestry Abroad, [206 vate ownership lands which, by reason of their soil and situation, will contribute better to the common- wealth under cultivation than as forest. In this way the forests whose preservation is most important are gradually passing into the hands of the State; yet the total area of its wood lands is increasing but slowly. The policy of State aid in the afforestation of waste lands important through their situation on high ground or otherwise is fully recognized (a notable example exists upon the Hohe Venn near Aix-la- Chapelle), but the absence of considerable mountain chains has given to this branch of Government influ- ence very much less prominence than in the Alps of Austria, Switzerland and France, where its advan- tages appear on a larger and more striking scale. In closing this brief sketch of forest policy in Prussia, you will perhaps allow me to refer for a mo- ment to the erroneous ideas of German forest man- agement which have crept into our literature. They have done so, I believe, partly through a desire of the advocates of forestry to prove too much, and they injure the cause of forestry, because they tend to make forest management ridiculous in the eyes of our citizens. The idea has arisen that German methods are exaggeratedly artificial and complicated, and not unaturally the inference has been made that forestry in itself is a thing for older and more densely popu- lated countries, and that forest management is inap- plicable and incapable of adaptation to the conditions under which we live. It is true, on the contrary, that the treatment of German forests is distinguished above all things by an elastic adaptability to circum- stances.which is totally at variance with the iron-clad Co) w 207 | Government Forestry Abroad. formality which a superficial observation may believe it sees. It is equally true that its methods could not be transported unchanged into our forests without entailing discouragement and failure, just as our methods of lumbering would be disastrous there; but the principles which underlie not only German, but all rational forest management, are true all the world over. It was in accordance with them that the for- ests of British India were taken in hand and are now being successfully managed, but the methods into which the same principles have developed are as widely dissimilar as the countries in which they are being applied. So forest management in America must be worked out along lines which the conditions of our life will prescribe. It never can be a techni- cal imitation of that of any other country, and a knowledge of forestry abroad will be useful and necessary rather as matter for comparison than as a guide to be blindly obeyed. It must be suited not only to the peculiarities of our national character, but also to the climate, soil and timber of each locality, to the facilities for trans- portation, the relations of supply and demand, and the hundred other factors which go to make up the natural character of a hillside, a county, or a State. Its details cannot be laid down ex cathedra, but must spring from a thorough acquaintance with the theory of forestry, combined with exhaustive knowledge of local conditions. It will necessarily lose the for- mality and minuteness which it has acquired in coun- tries of older and denser settlement, and will take on the character of largeness and efficiency, which has placed the methods of American lumbermen, in their own sphere, far beyond all competitors. « 24 Government Forestry Abroad. [208 All forest management, as contrasted with our present hand-to-mouth system of lumbering, must mean the exchange of larger temporary profits for returns which are indeed smaller, but which, under favorable circumstances, will continue and increase indefinitely. Under these conditions I do not believe that forest management in the United States will present even serious technical difficulties. It only asks the oppor- tunity to prove itself sound, practical and altogether good. FRANCE. In France, which stands with Germany at the head of the nations as regards thoroughness of forest policy, the large extent of government and other . public forests is in excellent condition. The struggle for their care and preservation, the necessary ante- cedent of their present favorable situation, has a history which reaches back far beyond the time when ue the United States became a nation. Says M. Boppe, in the introduction of his Trazté de Sylviculture;' “In early times, during the Middle Ages, and until the begin- ning of modern times, the knowledge of the specialists was summed up in certain practices of lumbering put together in a way to satisfy needs which were purely local. The wood was cut methodically, but without much care as to the manner in which it would grow again; that was the business of Dame Nature. Speaking of France alone, it is known that towards the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury, in spite of the fact that lumbering was restricted by limited demand (since, in the absence of the more powerful means of transportation, the wood must be put in use almost where it was felled); in spite of the repeated intervention of royal authority, the lack of foresight and abuses of all sorts resulted in the notable 1Paris, 1889. wh 209 | Government Forestry Abroad. 2E impoverishment of our forest domain. It was then that a man of genius, Bernard de Palissy, called the carelessness of his times in respect to the forests ‘not a mistake, but a calamity and a curse for France.’ “Henry IV made every effort to put an end to the -destruction, but it was reserved for Louis XVI, or rather for his minister, Colbert, to reconstruct on a solid basis the foundation of forest ownership. The law of August, 1669, which is in itself a whole forest code, will remain a legislative monument from which we cannot too much draw our inspiration.” The history of forestry in France continued to be associated with illustrious men in more recent times, among whom Recamier, Duhamel and Buffon were the first to ‘‘define the first principles of a rational forest management, based on the knowledge which had been gained of vegetable physiology.” France differs from Germany in the unity of her forest law. The Forest Code,! which closed in 1827 the series of forest enactments since the time of Col- bert, is still in force. Its provisions, altered but little by the political changes which have passed over them, are valid for the whole of France. In accordance with them certain classes of forest property are to be administered directly by the State forest service, along the lines which it marks out. These are the woods and forests which formed part of the domain of the State, those of communes and sections of communes, those of corporations and public institutions, and finally those in which the State, the communes or the public institutions have joint rights of property with individuals. The area of forest owned by the French govern- ment reaches a total of 2,657,944 acres, or about one- ninth of the whole wooded area, which itself covers 17 per cent. of the country. Considerably more than *Consult Code de la Legislation Forestiere. ver A. Puton, Paris, 1883. 26 Government Forestry Abroad. [210 half of the Government forests stand on hilly or mountainous land. The forest administration to which their care is entrusted is attached to the Department of Agriculture, and the Minister of Agri- culture is president of the Forest Council. This body includes the Director of the Forests and three admin- istrators, the first of whom is at the head of the Bureau for Legal Matters, Forest Instruction, Records and Acquisitions; the second of the Bureau of Work- ing Plans and Utilization, and the third of that for Reforesting the Mountains, Public Works, Replanting and Clearing. The personnel under the general direction of this council consists of 36 conservators, who are the higher inspecting and controlling officers; 225 inspec- tors, who are in administrative charge of divisions called inspections; 242 assistant inspectors, the executive officers, each of whom personally directs the work in his cantonment, and 328 officers of lower rank, called gardes généraux, whose work, in many cases similar to that of the grade above them, is difficult to define. Besides the 8834 members of this superior branch of the service, there were in 1885 some 3,532 forest guards of various grades. It is safe to assume that the force of the protective staff has remained substantially the same. The system of training for the service of the supe- rior staff differs widely from that which we have seen in Germany. There is but one higher forest school, that at Nancy, in place of the numerous in- stitutions of the Germans, and until very recently the whole course of preparation required of candi- dates for the government service consisted in the two years of study which it offered. At present entrance ras) =P 211] Government Forestry Abroad. to the forest school is open only to graduates of an agricultural institute in Paris, but this innovation had its rise rather in political than in educational grounds. The fact remains that the French forester, with a course of training only from a fourth to a third as long as that of his German colleague, has produced results whose admirable educational and intrinsic value stands unquestioned. All French government forest officers must pass through the school, and the demands of the vast ter- ritory under their care are supplied by an annual list of graduates, which does not in general exceed ten or twelve. Such facts make the task of national forest admin- istration seem lighter as we look forward to the time when it must be begun. There is a professional school at the Domaine des Barres for men of the higher grade of forest guards who have shown the ability and the ambition to rise to the lower rank of the superior staff. There were last year twelve students in attendance. The management of the wood lands of communes and public institutions, which cover together an area of 4,715,124 acres, has been already shown to rest with the State forest service. These facts are made the subject of special provisions in the Forest Code, of which the following are the most important: The communes, corporations and other public bodies may make no ciearing in their forests without an express and special permit from the President. Communal forests can never be divided among the inhabitants. A quarter of the forests belonging to communes and other public bodies shall always be placed in 28 Government Forestry Abroad. [212 reserve when these communes or public bodies shall possess at least ten hectares (24.7 acres) of forest. The choice of forest guards, made by the class of proprietors in question, must be approved by the Government forest service, which issues their com- missions to the guards. These last stand in all respects on the same footing as the guards of the State forests. The sale of wood is made under the direction of the State forest officers, and in the same way as for the State forests. The amount of wood needed for actual use by the members of the community is reserved at the time of sale, and the distribution is made among them with the family as the unit. In return for a fixed tax all the operations of con- servation and management in the woods of com- munes and public bodies are carried out by the mem- bers of the State forest service without further charge. The object of the reserved quarter (quart en réserve) of the forests of communes and public insti- tutions, mentioned above, is to provide for emergen- cies and special demands upon the treasury of their proprietors, such as damage by fire or flood, the build- ing of a church, a school-house or a public fountain. Except when sylvicultural reasons may require it to be cut, such extraordinary necessities alone justify a draught on this simple kind of reserve fund. The great majority of the forests owned by the class of proprietors just mentioned are managed under the system of ‘‘coppice under standards,’’ a name which literally reproduces the French tazllis sous futave. This method of handling a forest im- plies an upper and a lower store of growth. The basis 213] Government Forestry Abroad, 29 of the treatment is a cutting over of the coppice shoots or sprouts which spring up from the old stumps at regular intervals of from fifteen to forty- five years. In order to make the return annual and fairly uniform it is only necessary to divide the whole forest, if it be small, or each of its units of management, if it be large, into as many compart- ments of equal productive power as there are years in the rotation of the coppice, and to cut over one such compartment each year. At each cutting the best of the young seedlings which may have grown up among the coppice, or of the coppice shoots themselves if the seedlings are wanting, are left to grow on for two, three, four or even five rotations of the underwood. Being thus comparatively isolated these standards produce wood very rapidly, while, at the same time, their number is so restricted that they do not seriously interfere with the growth of the coppice by their shade. The disadvantages of the treatment are the large propor- tion of low-priced firewood which it yields, and the severe demands which it makes upon the soil. But this «*national French treatment,’ as it has been called, has very many qualities which recommend it. It is the form of treatment which yields the highest per cent. of return on the capital invested, as well as the highest absolute volume of wood (if we except the high forest of coniferous trees). According to the forest statistics of 1878, the most recent source of information, the average yield of coppice under standards in France. under State management, was fifty-nine cubic feet of wood per acre per annum, about one-fourth of which was lumber and the rest fuel, hoop-poles. etc. A net annual return of 5 per 30 Government Forestry Abroad. [214 cent. may be set as the upper limit of production of this class of forest, and therefore far beyond that of other forms of treatment. In 1878 the average net revenue of all the State forests was 32.00 francs per hectare per annum, or about $2.50 per acre. The return on the capital which they represented was stated at 24 per cent. As an illustration of the general financial situation of forestry in France, the budget of the forest service for 1891 may be cited. It provides for expenses in the round sum of fifteen and a half million of francs, and anticipates a gross revenue of twenty-five mil- lion. If we subtract the cost of re-foresting the mountains, managing the Algerian forests, which, as yet, cost more than twice as much as they bring in, and similar items which are not directly connected with the current expenses of forest management, we reach a total of ten million francs in round numbers. Subtracting similarly the Algerian income we find that the net revenue is expected to reach the sum of fourteen million francs. Forest management on this basis is very far removed from sentimentalism and the philanthropic forest protection whose watchword 1S0 “The Louisiana Purchase in its Influence upon the American System,”’ by Rt. Rev. C. F. Robertson, Bishop of Missouri; and a ‘‘His- tory of the Appointing Power of the President,’’ by Professor Lucy M. Salmon, of Vassar College. Votume II. contains the report of the proceedings in Washington in 1886, with special papers on ‘‘The History of the Doctrine of Comets,’’ by Andrew D. W hite; ‘‘Willem Usselinx, Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies,’’ by Dr. J. F. Jameson; “Church and State in the United States,” by Dr. Philip Schaff. VouumeE III. contains reports of the proceedings in Boston and Cam- bridge in 1887 and in Washington in 1888. Most of the papers read at these two conventions are here printed in full. Votume IV. contains a report of the proceedings at the Washington meeting in 1889. With this volume began the system of publication in quarterly parts, embracing groups of papers and important single mono- graphs like that of Dr. G. Brown Goode, on ‘‘The Origin of the National Scientific and Educational Institutions of the United States.” VoLuME V. is now in progress. Parts 2 and 3 were issued together. Part 3, the July number, is now ready. Since the incorporation of the American Historical Association by Con- eress in 1889, the society has been associated with the Smithsonian Insti- tution and through Secretary Langley reports annually to Congress. The report for the year 1889 contains a general account of the proceedings in Washington that year, the inaugural address of President C. K. Adams, a paper on ‘‘The Spirit of Historical Research,’’ by James Schouler, and a reprint of Dr. Goode’s paper on “The Origin of the National Scientific and Educational Institutions of the United States,’ together with Mr. P. L. Ford’s Bibliography of the published works of members of the American Historical Association. The report for !890 will contain an account of the proceedings in Washington for that year, abstracts of all the papers read, John Jay’s inaugural address on ‘‘The Demand for Education in American History,’ a supplementary bibliography of the published works of mem- bers, and the first part of a bibliography of the publications of State His- torical Societies in this country. These reports are issued free to members of the Association, and can be obtained by others through Members of Congress. Address all orders for the regular series to G. P. Putnam’ s Sons, 27 and 29 West 23d St., New York City. Pinchot, Gifford Government forestry abroad Forest . i r wi #E a Pinchot, _ AUTHOR packs abroad. [932378] ry ISSUED TO LIBRARY FACULTY OF FORESTRY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEC 5 - 10AF