A Brief History of Forestry.

In upper Austria, where the salt works are situated, the attempts at regulated management in connection with these date back to the middle of the 16th century, and, after various changes, these forest areas were, by 1888, placed under working plans of modern style. Over 50 % of the forest area of this province is so regulated. One of the most modern working plans based upon Pressler’s soil rent theory and a most intensive silviculture, is that of the Baron Mayr-Melnhof on his estate Kogl.

These details are merely brought forward to illustrate the great variation both in the progress of development and in the present conditions in different parts of the empire, similar differences being found in other portions. Suffice it to say that in round numbers about fifteen hundred thousand acres are managed under more or less intensive working plans, and of the balance seven million acres are farmers’ woodlots on which only silvicultural treatment is necessary.

6. Development of Silviculture

The necessity for conservative forest use and reforestation did not arise as early in Austria as it did in Germany. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that this necessity became apparent in most of the provinces, when German experiences in silviculture could be readily utilized.

In Bohemia, the clearing system with artificial reforestation, mostly by seed, had been introduced at the beginning of the century for the conifer forests, planting as a rule being resorted to only in fail places. For this planting, wildlings were mostly used. In the broad-leaved forest, the selection system, and to some extent the shelterwood method, were largely followed. The strip system was also much employed, and, as the felling areas were often made too large, undue increase of undesirable softwoods resulted. During the last 50 years, silvicultural theory and practice developed very much on the same lines as in Germany, more intensively in the densely populated and more accessible regions, and less so in the more distant and thinly settled mountain districts.

The most noted work of reforestation which has occupied Austrian foresters for the last forty years or more is that of the “Karst,” a name applied to the waste lands in the mountain and hill country of Istria, Trieste, Dalmatia, Montenegro and adjacent territory skirting the Adriatic Sea. It is a dry limestone country of some 600,000 acres in extent, stony and rough, and overdrained. Originally well forested with conifers and hardwoods, it had furnished for ages ship timber and other wood supplies to the Venetians. Through reckless cutting, burning and pasturing by the small farmers it had become almost entirely denuded, natural reforestation being prevented by these practices combined with the dryness of the soil, intensified by the deforestation.

For centuries, countless laws were passed to stop the progress of devastation, but without effect.

The first attempt at planting was made by the city of Trieste in 1842, and found some imitators, but with meager result.

In 1865, the Austrian government, acting upon representations of the Forestry Association, undertook to encourage and assist private landowners in reforesting their Karst lands by remitting taxes on reforested lands for a period of years, by technical advice, and by assistance with plant material and money.

By this move, so much land was withdrawn from pasture and taxation that opposition was aroused among the cattle owners, which led to additional legislation during the years 1882 to 1887, and finally to the creation of a commission charged to select the lands which in the interest of the country required reforestation, and empowered to enforce this improvement within a given time, the State expropriating the lands of objecting owners. At the same time, the Commission brought about the division of pasture lands which were held in communal ownership.

By 1909, of the 75,000 acres selected by the Commission as of immediate interest 15,000 acres had been planted, mostly with Austrian Pine, at an average cost of $8 to $16 per acre, the cost including stone enclosures for the plantations, to protect them against cattle and fire, and the repairs, which sometimes equalled the original expense. In addition, some 50,000 acres of natural growth were brought into productive condition merely by protection.

While this activity refers to the northern portion of the coast region, the Karst of Dalmatia farther south, being oak country, was mainly recuperated by protective measures. Here, in 1873, the pasturing of goats was forbidden on areas of over one million acres in extent which were found capable of reforestation. In 1876, the partition of communal holdings was ordered, and portions were designated for forest use, to be planted. As a result of these measures, nearly 400,000 acres have been recuperated.

7. Education and Literature

The first forest schools in Austria were established through private effort, namely one in 1800 in Bohemia by Prince Schwarzenberg, and another one in Moravia by Prince Liechtenstein, these two being the largest forest owners in Austria. In 1805, another private forest school was opened in Bohemia, and at the same time the state institute near Vienna came into existence. This was, in 1813, transferred to Mariabrunn, and, after various changes in the character of the teaching, was, in 1867, raised to the dignity of an academy with a three years’ course. In 1875, it was transferred to the Hochschule für Bodenkultur at Vienna, an agricultural school, which had been instituted in 1872, intended to give the higher scientific education in both forestry and agriculture by a three years’ course. The course was, in 1905, increased to four years. During the years from 1875 to 1904, over 2,600 students in forestry alone had attended this excellent school at which over 70 professors and instructors are employed.

For the lower grades of foresters, schools were from time to time opened in addition to the private ones first mentioned. Such so-called “middle schools,” were founded at Eulenberg (1852), Weisswasser (1855) transferred to Reichstadt, and Lemberg (1874), at which latter the course is two years in the Polish language, and one at Bruck (1900), where the course is three years. At present, there are five middle schools in operation.

For the education of guards, three Forstwart schools were instituted in 1881 and 1883, one each for Tirol, Styria and Galicia, where, in an eleven months’ course, 15 forest guards at each receive instruction. In addition there are five schools of silviculture where the course is one year. Besides these schools, courses in forestry of shorter duration are given at three other institutions.

Besides these schools, the promotion of forestry science is, as in Germany, secured by forest experiment stations, which came into existence as a result of the earlier deliberations of the German foresters. The first proposition to establish such a station was submitted in 1868, but its establishment was delayed until 1875, when such a station was instituted at Vienna in connection with the school there. The results of the investigations are published from year to year and have enriched the forestry literature in the German language with many important contributions.

A very active association life exists in Austria, largely due to the influence of the many large private forest owners. Curiously enough, the first attempt at forming a society of foresters in Bohemia was suppressed by the authorities, probably for fear of revolutionary tendencies, and the effort simply resulted in a literary or reading association to obviate the need of private purchase of books. Not until 1848, the very year of the revolution, did the Bohemian forestry association become a fact, and, under the leadership of the large forest owners among the nobility, it has become the strongest in Austria, issuing a bi-monthly association journal from the beginning. Another strong local association which dates its beginning as a society for agriculture back to 1770, is the Moravian-Silesian Forestry Association, which segregated from the mother society in 1850, first as a section, and, having by 1858, attained a membership of 1,000, it constituted itself as a separate association in 1886. Besides these, many smaller ones exist in Austria. In 1852, a general Austrian forestry association was founded, which, in 1854, began the publication of a quarterly journal and held sessions in various parts of the empire; but, by and by, the interest seemed to flag, the attendance at the meetings became smaller and smaller, and finally the association was abandoned after a rival, the Austrian Forestry Congress, had been organized in 1874, which later became the Oesterreichische Reichs-Forstverein.

In Galicia and in Bukowina, the foresters meet as a section of the Society for Soil Culture. The same method of forming forestry sections of the agricultural societies is followed in other parts of the empire, and at least a dozen or more other local foresters’ associations might be mentioned, in which owners of forest properties are as fully represented as professional foresters; and their activity is not only to be found in literary labors, but also in practical work. In addition to the meetings of these local societies, representative congresses have met annually at Vienna since 1876, and have become powerful agents for improving legislation and practice.

Although, as was natural, owing to the difference in conditions the forestry literature in Austria began much later than that of Germany, a very active progress is noticeable since the middle of the last century, and the Austrians are vying successfully with the Germans in this direction. The names of Fioceli, Pokorny, Böhm, Wiesner, Molish, Willkomm, Hempel and Kerner in the direction of forest botany, Wessely, von Lorenz-Liburnau, Feistmantel, Dimitz, Wachtl (Entomology), Dombrowski (encyclopedia 1886), Exner, Janka (wood technology), Guttenberg (forest mensuration and regulation), von Seckendorff, Schiffel (forest mensuration), Cieslar, Reuss, Böhmerle, Hufnagl, Marchet, and many others are familiar to all German readers. In addition a very considerable literature in the Bohemian language is in existence, some in the Italian by Austrian authors, and some in the Slavonian.

The magazine literature began with publications by various forestry associations which became active after 1848. At the present time weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, yearly and irregular publications to the number of not less than 14 in German, in addition to several in Bohemian, may be counted, among which the monthly Centralblatt für das Gesammte Forstwesen, in existence since 1875, and the weekly Oesterreichische Forstzeitung, since 1883, are perhaps the most widely known.

HUNGARY

Hungary is mainly a fertile plain, traversed by the Danube and Theiss, an agricultural country, with the forest confined to the hilly portions, to the mountainous southern provinces of Slavonia and Croatia, and to the Carpathians, which bound it on the north and east. Nevertheless, while wood in the plain is scarce, the total forest area, including that of the two mentioned provinces, is but little less than that of Austria proper, namely, 23,000,000 acres (28 %). Large areas of shifting sands, and, along the Danube and Theiss rivers, swamps, partly created by deforestation, are interspersed with the heavy black prairie and compact clay-soils.

At present, of the 23 million acres of forest the State owns 16 %, corporations somewhat over 20 %, churches, cloisters and other institutes 7.5 %, and the balance, over 13 million acres, is owned privately. The administration of the State forests is in the Department of Agriculture but some are still under the control of the military and railroad departments.

All but the private forests are under State surveillance. Of the private properties the majority consists of large holdings and about ten per cent. are entailed, a hopeful condition for conservative management. Yet with an export of 10 to 12 million dollars or more, exploitation would appear still to be general, and devastated areas abound. It is claimed that half the area is under working plans, and that the 1000 million cubic feet of annual cut do not approach the annual increment. The State forests yield now in the neighborhood of $600,000 net.

Although naturally influenced by Austrian precedent, forestry matters in Hungary like all matters of administration are largely independent of Austria, the connection being only in the identity of the ruler.

The forests, which had been for the most part the property of the kings of the Arpad dynasty, had by them been turned over from time to time in donations to the churches, cloisters and to colonists, so that when the Hapsburgs succeeded on the throne, in 1526, only a small portion remained undisposed, and this became State property.

In the forests which were necessary for the working of the royal mines and furnaces, an attempt was early made to secure systematic treatment under an ordinance (1565) which gave instructions as to the order of fellings, the reservation of seed trees, etc. But, otherwise, the government did not make much effort at regulating forest use until the middle of the 18th century, and then, largely owing to military considerations, urged by General von Engelshofen commanding on the frontier against the Turks. The planting of forests for defense was ordered (1743) by Maria Theresa, but this order was probably never executed.

About this time, however, movements of reform in various directions are noticeable. Complete working plans were made for the Kremnitz forest in 1750, and for the Schemnitz forest in 1763. The forest ordinances of 1770 and 1781 and the law of 1791 attempted to regulate the use of communal forests, and ordered the reservation of devastated forest areas. Other legislation followed in 1807, designed to arrest the further extension of shifting sands.

Although, since 1809, forest inspectors had been employed to look after the execution of the forest laws, mismanagement and forest destruction by promiscuous cutting, pasture and fire remained the rule, and with the advent of the railroads, in 1850, increased apace.

Political troubles prevented any attempts at improvement until, in 1867, comparative peace and the new régime had arrived, and finally, in 1879, it became possible to pass a reform law, which is the basis of present conditions.

A general forest law had been enacted in 1807; this was superseded in 1858 by the adoption of the Austrian law of 1852. But, in 1879, a new law reorganized forest policy and forest service. In that year, the State interests were placed under the administration of the Department of Agriculture with a technical forester at the head (Oberlandforstmeister), assisted by four section chiefs, one in charge of the State forest administration, one for the administration of corporation forests, one for the elaboration of working plans, and one, with the assistance of 20 forest inspectors having supervision of the execution of all forest laws. Otherwise the general features of German administrative methods prevail, except that for purposes of executing the protective forest laws, committees composed of three members chosen from the country officials co-operate with the government service.

The law of 1879, modified and intensified in 1898, provides government supervision of the management of corporation and of protection of forests, and prescribes that land unfit for farming, i.e., absolute forest soil (three-quarters of all forest land), no matter by whom owned, is to be reforested within six years after having been stripped, and no new clearings may be made on such soils. Mountain forests, which are classed as protection forests (around one million acres or 5.4 % of the forest area so classed), as well as entailed properties, must be managed according to working plans approved by the forest department. The declaration of protective forests was to be made by a commission within five years of the enactment of the law. New planting for protective purposes could also be ordered, and this under certain conditions may be done by the interested, i.e., protected parties, which may associate themselves for this purpose. Violations of this law are liable to be punished by a fine for each acre, imposed annually as long as the offense continues. Two-thirds of the whole forest area is thus more or less under State supervision, and working plans for over 12 million acres have been, or are to be prepared by the government. An area allotment method with a normal forest formula as a check has been mostly employed in this work, which is by no means as yet completed.

To promote forest planting several nurseries have been established by the government, from which around 10 million plants are annually distributed free of charge, and subventions for reforestation of wastes are also granted annually. It is interesting to note in this connection that more than 170,000 acres have been planted to Black Locust, which is managed as coppice for vineyard stakes.

In 1884, a special fund for the purchase of forest land by the State was instituted by turning all moneys received from eventual sales of forest land into that fund. Another fund for forest improvement is accumulated by placing four-fifths of all penalties collected for forest trespasses into a separate account for that purpose. These funds have not accumulated very fast, the forest improvement fund, in 1896, being only about $120,000.

Similar to the Landes in France, there exist in various parts of Hungary extensive sand wastes and shifting sands, partly caused by deforestation. Ever since 1788, legislation has attempted to secure a rehabilitation of these waste areas, which cover in all some 600 square miles. In 1817, a first systematic beginning was made in the Banat, on the “Alföld” of the Magyars, under the forest director Bachofen, similar to Brémontier’s undertaking in France. By 1842, the total plantations amounted to about 12,000 acres, and by 1869, some 20,000 acres had been reforested, and parts of the plantations had begun to yield profits. But even to-day, there are still large areas in a desert condition.

A classic volume in German by Joseph Wessely, Hungarian forest director, Der europäische Flugsand und seine Kultur, describes in detail the principles and methods of reclamation of shifting sands.

Most of the Hungarian forestry literature being written in the Magyar language, is inaccessible to the rest of the world.

Efforts by private endeavor to promote forestry education date back as early as 1796, when Forest Inspector Vizner opened an elementary forest school and wrote a forestry catechism.

This effort was followed, in 1806, by introducing the subject in the agricultural school at Keszthely, and, in 1808, in the school of mines in Schemnitz (Selmecz banya), a German forester Wilkins filling the chair, while a special forest school was established at Hermannstadt in 1817.

The forestry courses at Schemnitz were enlarged and the school re-organized in 1846 and again in 1872; one of the changes being the use of the Hungarian language in its instruction, which had originally been in German. In 1904, the course, which was 3 years and only optionally 4 (one year for engineering education), was made 4 years for all, and is obligatory for all higher grade State officials.

In Croatia-Slavonia, which is in many respects separately administered, an agricultural and forestry school exists at Kreutz (Körös) with a three-year course.

For the lower service four schools of two-year courses have been established by the government, the instruction being given by practitioners, and some of the students receiving free tuition.

A forest experiment station was established in 1898; it issues a quarterly magazine, Irdeszeti Kiserletek, in which its results are recorded.

A Hungarian forestry association was formed in 1866; it issues a monthly journal, distributes pamphlets, gives prizes for literary effort, etc., and is, with over 2000 members, an active agent in the work of reform. A separate forestry association, which also publishes a monthly in the Slavish language, exists in Croatia.

SWITZERLAND

A very good brief statement of present conditions of forestry in Switzerland with some historical references may be found in Handwörterbuch der Schweizerischen Volkswirthschaft, Berlin 1903, with two chapters by Dr. J. Coaz and Prof. C. Bourgeois.

F. FANKHAUSER, Geschichte des bernischen Forstwesens bis in die neuere Zeit, Bern 1893, gives insight into the developments in one of the cantons, beginning in 1304.

LANDOLT, Ueber die Geschichte der Waldungen und des Forstwesens, Zürich, 1858.

L’évolution forestière dans le canton de Neuchâtel, Histoire-Statistique 1896.

BURRI, Die kulturgeschichtliche Entwicklung und wirthschaftliche Bedeutung des schweizerischen Waldbestands, Luzern 1898.

MEISTER, Die Stadtwaldungen von Zürich, 2d ed, 1903, exhibits on 225 pages in great detail the history and methods of management of this remarkable city forest of only about 3,000 acres.

Report of the British Foreign Office on Swiss Forest Laws, by CONWAY THORNTON, 1888, gives a very satisfactory exposé of the earlier legislation.

The interest which we have in the development of forestry in this small territory, of somewhat less than 16,000 square miles with over three million people, lies in the fact that it is a republic, or rather an aggregation of republics, the oldest in existence, and that, occupying an Alpine mountain country, it has developed a unique co-operative policy of forest protection. Being largely German by origin and sentiment, German influence on the development of forestry methods, outside of the administrative measures, has here been as strong as in Austria.

Switzerland did not exist as a power in name until the 17th century, and as a unit not until the reconstruction of 1815, and in its present settled condition and constitution not until 1848, although the nucleus of its political existence dates back at least 600 years, when, in 1291, the people of the three forest cantons, Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, formed their first league to resist encroachments on their rights by the church and by the feudal barons.

The country became settled, similarly to Germany, by Germans, and especially Burgundians, a free people; but when the control of the Obermärker over the free communities began to ripen into feudal superiority, it found resistance in the forest cantons, and these formed a league to fight the duke of Hapsburg, who partly as feudal lord, partly as Reichsvogt, the emperor’s representative, claimed obnoxious rights. Through admission of neighboring lands and cities to the league, the number of confederates had by the middle of the 14th century grown to eight, and when, by the battles of Sempach (1386) and Næfels (1388), the Austrian Hapsburg supremacy had been permanently destroyed, the number of allies grew, and, by conquest and annexation and otherwise, their territory attained nearly the present size by the middle of the 15th century; the war against feudalism being the cause for this growth.

These various small republics, however, always formed a part of and owed allegiance to the German Empire, although they resisted the arms of the Emperor as Archduke of Austria – until, with the peace of 1499, this connection became entirely nominal. The final separation from the German empire and acknowledgement of independence was not pronounced until the peace of Westphalia, in 1648.

The league of cantons was only a very loose confederation without any central power, although a diet, to which each canton sent a delegate, had deliberative functions. Almost immediately after the alliance was formed it became fatally divided, especially when religious differences arose, and throughout the 16th and first half of the 17th century, continuous warfare existed between the different allies.

It must not, however, be understood that the peasants in the different cantons were entirely free from the ancient tyrannies. With the exception of the three forest cantons, which were truly democratic republics, the majority of the Swiss peasants, free in the eyes of the outside world, were mere serfs until the beginning of the 18th century, and secured their freedom only after many revolts.