A Brief History of Forestry.. Fernow Bernhard Eduard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ and found application, more or less, throughout the Roman empire from India to Spain.

      Nursery practice was already well known to Cato, while Varro knew, besides sowing and planting, the art of grafting and layering, and Columella discusses in addition pruning and pollarding (which latter was practiced for securing fuelwood), and the propriety of leaving the pruned trees two years to recuperate before applying the knife again.

      The method of wintering acorns and chestnuts in sand, working them over every 30 days and separating the poor seed by floating in water, was known to Columella and, indeed, he discusses nursery management with minute detail, even the advantages of transplants and of doubly transplanted material. The question whether to plant or to sow, the preference of fall or spring planting with distinction for different species and localities are matters under his consideration; and preference of sowing oak and chestnut instead of transplanting is pointed out and supported by good reasons.

      Pliny, the Humboldt of the ancients, recognizes tolerance of different species, the need of different treatment for different species, the desirability of transplanting to soil and climatic conditions similar to those to which the tree was accustomed, and of placing the trees as they stood with reference to the sun. But, to be sure, he also has many curious notions, as for instance his counsel to set shallow rooted trees deeper than they stood before, his advice not to plant during rain, or windy weather and his laying much stress on the phases of the moon as influencing results.

      While then the ancients were not entirely without silvicultural knowledge, indeed possessed much more than is usually credited to them, the need of a forest policy and of a systematic forest management in the modern sense had not arisen in their time; the mild climate reducing the necessity of fuelwood and the accessibility by water to sources of supply for naval and other construction delaying the need for forest production at home.

      There is little doubt, that some of the agricultural and silvicultural knowledge and practice of the Romans found entrance among the German tribes who, especially the Allemanni, came into contact with the Romans in their civilized surroundings during the fourth century.

      GERMANY

      Besides a dozen or more earlier histories of forestry in Germany, some of which date back to the beginning of the 19th century, there are two excellent modern compilations, namely:

      Geschichte des Waldeigenthums, der Waldwirtschaft und Forstwissenschaft in Deutschland, by August Bernhardt, 1872-75, 3 Vols., 1062 pp., a classic, which treats especially extensively of political and economic questions having a bearing on the development of forestry; and

      Handbuch der Forst- und Jagdgeschichte Deutschlands, by Adam Schwappach, 1886, 2 Vols., 892 pp., which appeared as a second edition of Bernhardt’s history, abridging the political history and expanding the forestry part. This volume has been mainly followed in the following presentation of the subject. In condensed form this history is also to be found in Lorey’s Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 143-210.

      In Schwappach’s history a full list of original sources is enumerated. These are, for the oldest period, Roman writings, which are unreliable; the laws of the various German tribes; the laws of kings (Capitularia); the laws of villages and other territorial districts; “Weisthümer” (judgments); inventories of properties (especially of churches and cloisters); documents of business transactions and chronicles. For the time after the Middle ages the most important source is found in the Forest Ordinances of princes and other forest owners; forest laws; police orders; business documents, and finally special literature.

      It is generally conceded that both the science and art of forestry are most thoroughly developed and most intensively applied throughout Germany. It must, however, not be understood that perfection has been reached anywhere in the practical application of the art, or that the science, which like that of medicine has been largely a growth of empiricism, is in all parts safely based; nor are definitely settled forest policies so entrenched, that they have become immutable. On the contrary, there are still mismanaged and unmanaged woods to be found, mainly those in the hands of farmers and other private owners; there are still even in well managed forests practices pursued which are known not to conform to theoretical ideals, and others which lack a sure scientific foundation; and while the general policy of conservative management and of State interest in the same is thoroughly established, the methods of attaining the result are neither uniform throughout the various States which form the German Federation, nor positively settled anywhere. In other words, the history of forestry is still, even in this most advanced country, in the stage of lively development.

      For the student of forestry the history of its development in Germany is of greatest interest not only because his art has reached here the highest and most intensive application, but because all the phases of development through which other countries have passed or else will eventually have to pass are here exemplified, and many if not most of the other countries of the world have more or less followed German example or have been at least influenced by German precedent. There is hardly a policy or practice that has not at some time in some part been employed in the fatherland of forestry.

      One reason for this rich historical background is the fact, that Germany has never been a unit, that from its earliest history it was broken up into many independent and, until modern times, only loosely associated units, which developed differently in social, political and economic direction. This accounts also for the great variety of conditions existing even to-day in the 26 principalities which form the German empire.

      Politically, it may be mentioned that out of the very many independent principalities into which the German territory had been divided, variable in number from time to time, the 26 which had preserved their autonomy formed in 1871 the federation of States, known as the German Empire. Each of these has its own representative government including the forest administration, very much like the state governments of the United States; only the army and navy, tariff, posts, telegraphs, criminal law and foreign policy, and a few other matters are under the direct jurisdiction of the empire, represented in the Reichstag, the Bundesrath, and the Emperor.

      The 208,830 square miles of territory,2 which supports a population of about 60 million people, still contain a forest area of around 35 million acres (26 % of the land area) or .61 acre per capita, which although largely under conservative management has long ago ceased to supply by its annual increment (somewhat over 50 cubic feet per acre) the needs of the population; the imports during the last 50 years since 1862, when Germany began to show excess of imports over exports, having grown in volume at the average rate of 10 % to now round 380 million cubic feet (45 million dollars) or nearly 15 % of the consumption.

      The larger part of Germany, two thirds of the territory and population is controlled by modern Prussia, with a total forest area of 20 million acres; Bavaria comes next with one seventh of the land area and 6 million acres of forest; the five larger states of Wurttemberg, Baden, Saxony, Mecklenburg and Hesse, occupying together another seventh of the territory with 5 million acres of forest. The balance of the area is divided among the other 19 states.

      Fifty per cent. of Germany roughly speaking, is plains country, the larger part in the northern and eastern territory of Prussia; 25 % is hill country, mostly in West and Middle Germany; and 25 % is mountain country, the larger portion in the southern states.

      There are at best only five species of timber of high economic general importance, the (Scotch) pine which covers large areas in the northern sandy plain and the lighter soils in the south; the (Norway) spruce and (Silver) fir which form forests in the southwestern and other mountain regions and represent, in mixture with broadleaf forest, a goodly proportion in the northeastern lowlands; the (English) oak, of which botanically two species are recognized; and the beech. The last two are the most important hardwoods found throughout the empire, but especially highly developed in the west and southwest. In addition, СКАЧАТЬ