Kitabı oku: «A Brief History of Forestry.», sayfa 21

4. Education and Literature

Among the propagandist literature, which had advanced the introduction of forestry ideas in Sweden it is proper to mention the writings of Israel Adolf of Ström, who after extensive travels in Germany established the first private forest school in 1823, and was instrumental in securing the establishment of the State Forest Institute in Stockholm (1828).

In regard to education a most liberal policy prevails.

At the Institute the tuition is free and in addition 4 students receive scholarships of 250 dollars per year; appointment to assistantships follows immediately after promotion, and in 10 years the position of jägmästare may be attained. The number of students is limited to 30. The director of this school is also general adviser in forestry matters. Besides the director, six professors are employed. The course at this school is two years of 11 full months.

There are now a higher and a lower course, the former requiring previous graduation from another preparatory forest school, either the one at Omberg (founded 1886), or that at Kloten (1900), where a one-year course, mainly in practical work, is given.

For the lower service there are not less than 6 schools in various parts of the country, each with one teacher and assistants, managed under a chief of range. In these, not only is tuition free but 10 pupils receive also board and lodging; the course lasting 8 months. These schools prepare for State service, as well as for managers of private forests.

A forest experiment station was organized in 1903, an independent institution in the Domain Bureau, under the direct charge of a practitioner. Every third year, a commission is to determine what work is to be undertaken. The appropriation, which so far is hardly $5,000 per annum, will not permit much expansion. The first number of its publication, Meddelanden fran Statens Skogsförsöksanstalt, was issued in 1904, and work of a superior character has been accomplished since then.

That a forestry public exists in Sweden is attested by a forest association with an organ Skogsvards Föreningens Tidskrift, which was founded in 1902. This journal is really the continuation of an earlier magazine, Tidskrift for Skogshushallning, a quarterly, begun in 1869 and running until 1903. A forestry association for Norrland alone which also issues a yearbook, was organized a few years ago. A periodical for rangers, etc., is also in existence under the name of Skogsvännen.

In 1902 also, there was formed a lumberman’s trust to regulate the output, which the forest owners proposed to meet by an associated effort to raise stumpage charges. The attempt of the lumbermen to restrict the cut in 1902 was, however, a failure, for the export of that year was 10 % larger than the previous year.

It is expected that the new law will have the tendency of decreasing the cut and of inaugurating a new era in forestry matters generally.

NORWAY

Originally divided up among a number of petty kings, Norway was brought under one rule by Harold in 863; and united to Denmark in the 11th century, becoming gradually a mere dependency. Its later political fortunes and changing relations with Denmark and Sweden have been referred to on p. 286. The history of the forestry development, however, has proceeded more or less independently of the other two countries.

Norway, occupying with 124,445 square miles over one-third of the Scandinavian peninsula, is for the most part a mountainous plateau with deep valleys and lakes. Its numerous fjords and water ways make accessible much of the interior mountain forest, yet a large part of the inland area still remains inaccessible and trackless.

More than 75 % of the country is waste land and water; only 3 % in farms, leaving for the forest area 21 %, or little over 17 million acres. According to latest data (1907) from this productive area a further 2 million acres must be deducted as non-producing.

The distribution of this forest area is most uneven. The bulk and the most valuable portion of it is found in the south-eastern corner around Christiania in eight counties, in which the forest per cent. exceeds 40 to 50, with conifer growth (pine and spruce) up to the 3,000 foot level. Again in the three counties around Trondhjem a large and important forest area is located at the head of the fjords. But the entire western coast and the higher elevations are devoid of valuable forest growth and the northern third of the country (north of the Arctic circle) is mostly heath and moors with only 7 % wooded, mainly birch growth of little commercial value.

The commercially important forest area is, therefore, locally confined. It is estimated that one-half of the territory has to import its lumber, one-quarter has sufficient for home consumption, and the excess which permits exportation is confined to the last quarter. This export, mostly in logs and staves, which amounts to nearly 20 million dollars (40 % of the total export) half of it woodpulp is estimated to represent only one-fifth or one-sixth of the total cut, which is stated as about 350 million cubic feet, or at the rate of 23 cubic feet on the productive area while the annual growth is estimated at less than this amount, namely at the rate of nearly 21 cubic feet in the southern districts, and in the northern not over 12 cubic feet.

Scotch Pine is the principal timber, and occurs beyond the Arctic Circle – the northernmost forest in the world – where its rotation becomes 150 to 200 years, with Norway Spruce more or less localized, these two species forming 75 per cent. of the forest growth; oak, ash, basswood and elm occurring sporadically, and White Birch being ubiquitous.

Forest property developed on the same lines as in Sweden and in other European countries, hence we find State, communal, and private property.

When in the ninth century, upon Harold’s accession, the commons were declared the property of the king, the rights of user, both to wood and grazing, were retained by the märker, and the so-called State commons (stats-almenninger) remain to date encumbered by these rights, similar to conditions in Sweden. From the end of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century it was the policy of the kings to dispose of these commons whenever their exchequer was low, and the best of these lands became, by purchase, property of the districts (bygdealmenning), provinces, city and village corporations, or else became private property on which the rights of user continued (privatalmenninger).

At present the State owns, largely in the northern districts, somewhat over 4.8 million acres (28.5 %); but of this hardly 2 million acres are productive, and of these productive acres half a million consists of encumbered commons from which the State receives hardly any income. The district commons or communal, and other public institute forests comprise around 7,800,000 acres (46 %); but here again only 580,000 acres are productive. The balance then, or a full one-quarter is in private hands.

Export trade in wood had been very early carried on, and had been considerably developed in the 13th and 14th century. By the middle of the 17th century the coast forest of oak had been cut out by Dutch and English wood merchants who had obtained logging privileges under special treaties of 1217 and 1308, and by Hanseatic cities, especially Hamburg entering this market in the middle of the 16th century.

There are records which would make it appear that at least some of the now denuded coast was forested in olden times. The development of the iron industry increased the drain on these supplies, which forest fires, insects and excessive grazing prevented from recuperating.

As early as the middle of the 16th century we find attempts to arrest the devastation by regulating the export trade and supervising the sawmills, forbidding especially the erection of sawmills intended to work for export only.

In the 17th century, various commissions were appointed by Christian IV to make forest reconnaissances and elaborate rules for proper forest use. In 1683, Christian V issued a forest ordinance increasing the number of forest inspectors instituted by his predecessor, and giving in detail the rules governing forest use, many of which proved impractical.

In 1725, a commission, the socalled forest and sawmill commission, was appointed to organize a forest service. It functioned until 1739, when the first Generalforstamt was established and the first attempt at real forest management was made. This came into existence through the efforts of two famous German foresters, J. G. von Langen and von Zanthier, who with six assistants were called in from the Harz mountains (as also afterwards to Denmark and Sweden), during the years 1736 to 1740, to make a forest survey and organize a management. Descriptions and instructions were elaborated in German and the service was largely manned by German “wood foresters” (holzforsterne). The strictness of the department which had been organized after von Langen’s departure in 1739, made it, however, unpopular, and, in 1746, it was abolished, von Zanthier returning to his country, the sole survivor, the other assistants having succumbed to scurvy. The administration was again placed in the hands of a commission which continued till 1760.

Only the forests connected with mines remained under the administration as instituted, and those belonging to the copperworks of Roras continued under its forest inspectors until 1901.

In that year, 1760, another shortlived attempt to organize a forest administration was made, but the new organization did not fare any better and was superseded in 1771. Then followed an interim regimen, during which the general government and district officers were in charge.

The old orders under which forest use had been regulated remained mostly in force until in 1795 all the reasonable and the unreasonable obstructions to export were removed. The sawmill privileges, under which English lumbermen held large areas for long terms and devastated them without regard to the impractical regulations, were, however, not ended until 1860. The wood industries were then relieved entirely from restrictions, and forest destruction progressed even more rapidly with the increasing facilities for transportation.

This final cessation of the destructive policy was the outcome of a campaign which started once more with a forest commission instituted, in 1849, to take stock and make new propositions. This commission reported in 1850, and pointed out not only the necessity of terminating the sawmill privileges, which was done in 1854, giving time till 1860, but also very wisely accentuated the need of technically educated foresters if anything for forest recuperation was to be done.

To meet this latter want, young men were sent to Germany at government expense to study forestry. Some 10 or 12 men were educated in this way during the next decade and thereby the basis for a technical forest management was laid. In 1857, the first two professional foresters, Mejdell and Barth, were placed in charge of affairs under the Interior Department, and when in 1859 a new commission was charged with organizing a forest service, these two men were members. Gradually an organization took shape under the direction of these two forestmeisters, and, finally, in 1863, the modern forest department and forest policy was established by law, placing the State domain and other public forests under an effective management, making provision for the extinction of the ruinous rights of user and also for reducing the mismanagement of private forests.

The forest service, as now constituted after a reorganization in 1906, is in the Department of Agriculture under a director (Skovdirector) and 4 Forstmeister or inspectors with some executive officers under various names, and 360 rangers (skogsvogternes), including the rangers employed in the public forests outside the State domain. The ranges are so large, sometimes several million acres, and many of them so inaccessible that only the most extensive management is possible; the officials being poorly paid and poorly educated, the management is, of course, not of a high order.

Besides a “forest engineer,” who is a public lecturer, the officers of the forest department are under the obligation of advising private forest owners in their management, under contracts somewhat similar to the present practice of the U. S. Forestry Bureau, the owners agreeing to follow the advice.

Since 1860, the State has begun to purchase forest lands for reforestation in the forestless districts and where, for protective reasons, it is desirable. In late years, regular appropriations of $15,000 to $20,000 were annually made for this purpose, besides extraordinary grants. In this way, the cut-over lands, neglected by their owners, are cheaply acquired by the State. Besides its own planting, the State assists private owners by advice and money grants and plantmaterial in reforesting their waste lands.

The communal forests are under government supervision; they are usually worked under plans and under supervision of foresters with a view to supply the needs of the community. Only when the area is more than sufficient may they obtain the right to cut for sale outside of their parish; on the other hand all fellings may be prohibited by the government, if this is found desirable. As regards private property there seems to be little or no supervision, although the law of 1863 had declared Kulturplight and Kulturtvank, i.e., the duty of reforesting, but it had not defined that duty, and the law remained a dead letter.

In 1874, a special commission was charged to consider the forest policy which the public welfare required. The commission reported in 1879 with propositions, which were submitted to the officials of the department and the district. A new proposition was worked out and submitted in 1882, but it was pigeonholed until 1891, when the forest administration brought in not a general law but one merely forbidding the export from Nordland, Tromsoe and Finmarken, the thinly forested northern provinces.

Finally, in 1893, legislation was had enabling municipalities to protect themselves against destruction of forests needed for their protective function. This gives to them the right to formulate rules which are to prevent devastation, as for instance a diameter limit for felling, or reforestation of clearings. But the costs of such restriction must be borne by the municipalities as well as half the cost of inspection, the other half being paid by the State. The procedure to determine the protective quality of forests and the financial difficulty have left the law unused.

In 1878, however, a committee of private owners formed itself, to fix the sand dunes, which with the State subventions started work the following year.

Many of the State forests are so burdened with rights of user, which were granted to help in developing the country, that the financial results of the forest administration and the conditions of the State property are most unsatisfactory, and the application of silviculture greatly circumscribed.

The silvicultural system applied is most generally the rough selection forest or an approach to group system, relying upon voluntary reproduction entirely. Management is much hampered by rights of user to certain dimensions, and in the more distant districts by the difficulty of disposing of any but the best sizes. An orderly organization is still almost unknown. The stumpage is sold and removed by the buyer and the axe is still mainly used.

Higher forest schools there are none, but three schools for the lower grades had existed for some time, the first having been established in 1875 at Kongsberg; one of them was abandoned in 1889. Forestry is also taught at two farm schools.

Until recently the higher class foresters had to get their education in Germany, or in the Swedish Forest Institute at Stockholm; but in 1879, a chair of forestry was instituted in the Agricultural college at Kristiania.

In 1881, the first forestry association was formed, which by 1898 had over 500 members, and then was re-organized with a special view to elevate private forestry practice. It has now (1907) 1,500 members, and employs a forester paid by the State, to give professional advice, and works with State aid. It has set out over 50 million trees besides sowing 8,000 lbs. of seed. It publishes a journal Tidskrift for Skogsbruk, and a Yearbook. There is also another journal, Forstligt Tidskrift, and a professional Society of Foresters.

Altogether forestry is not yet on a high level in this country, but the subject is now being brought even into the primary schools, and the efforts to improve conditions are widespread.

DENMARK

Forestry in Denmark is of interest especially on account of the intensive methods developed on small areas, and of the efforts at reforestation of sand dunes, moors and heaths.

Greatly curtailed in area when, as a result of the war of 1864, Prussia detached the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, Denmark now has an area of 15,360 square miles with 2.5 million people (or 163 to the square mile). It is largely a farming country, 80 per cent. being productive, only 6.3 per cent. of it, or less than 600,000 acres being under forest, and this also mostly on soil capable of farm use; hence an import of over 7 million dollars worth of wood material is required.

In addition, there are about 75,000 acres of heaths and other wastes in process of reforestation. Especially on the island of Själland, on which the capital Copenhagen, is situated, the forest area is now increasing by planting. The balance, or nearly 20 per cent. of the land area, consists of heaths, moors, peatbogs and sands.

Half the forest area is located on the islands, and as these represent about one-third of the total area, they are twice as densely forested as the peninsula of Jütland. This latter along the north and west coast for 200 miles represents a large sandbank with extensive sand dunes, shifting sands, heaths and moors, a desolate almost uninhabited country of sterile downs, called Klitten, the recovery of which has been in progress for a hundred years. According to some, this once bore a coniferous forest, more likely it was never forested.

While originally beech was and is still the predominant timber (60 %) with considerable additions of oak (7 %) and other hardwoods, a conifer forest of spruce and pine, covering more than 20 % of the forest area, has been established by planting. This planting has been mainly done on the dunes and sandwastes, and in the reclamation of the extensive heaths and moors or peat bogs, especially in the northern Limfjord district, which occupy one-sixth of the unproductive area.

As was natural, the forest stocking on good farm land had to yield early to plow and pasture. Attempts at conservative use of the forest area date back to 1557 when Christian III issued a forest ordinance directing his vassals or liege lords to permit the peasants to secure their domestic wood requirements at a cheap rate, but not to permit cutting for sale or export, and reserving to himself all returns from such sales. There were also regulations for the pasture, especially as to goats, and for the use of the mast, which then formed more than one-quarter of the income from the royal forests.

In the 18th century the need of forest management was recognized, and in 1762 the two eminent German foresters, von Langen and von Zanthier (see p. 88) were invited to visit Denmark and Norway (see above) with a view of organizing such management. In 1760, eight young Danes were sent to von Langen in Wernigerode to study his methods for three years, and these with the two German foresters returned in 1762, and under the direction of von Langen organized the Seeland forest areas and started the first plantations of conifers, which are now the pride of Danish foresters.

In 1781, the State forests were altogether placed under an organized administration.

By the beginning of the 19th century the reduction of forest areas had progressed to such an extent that, in 1805, a law was enacted providing that the then existing forest area containing beech and oak should be maintained as such forever, or at least that for any new clearing an equivalent area be planted to forest. This law was perhaps the result of a journey in 1802, to Germany made by two leading officials of the forest department, German influence through Cotta and Hartig being at this time visible everywhere.

Other restrictions in the disposal of peasants’ farms or woodlands and in the manner of farming the large estates (otherwise than by renting to farmers), were also enacted in order to secure stability of the peasant class. It was at this time that the accumulative taxing of landed estates now under heated discussion in Great Britain, was used effectively to break up the aggregation of landed property and changed the country from one of baronial estates to small farmer’s holdings. In this reform movement the name of Count Reventlow, Chief of the State forest department, appears as the leading spirit.

The forest area, which until 1820 was on the decrease, has since that time increased steadily, and is especially now increasing through reforestation of waste lands.

At present, most intensive forest management is practised in the State forest as well as in the communal and private forest areas, which latter as stated, are largely in farmers’ wood lots since the law forbids the union of small farms into large estates. There is little communal property, and large private estates are also rare. The State owns about 24 % of the forest area or 142,000 acres, of which one third is nonproductive or otherwise occupied, and one third consists of coniferous plantations. Excepting in the beech forest, most of the timber is of the younger age classes, below 60 to 80 years, and it is anticipated that the cut will have to be reduced, and the import of wood and woodenware increased.

Artificial reproduction is the most general silvicultural practice except in the beech forest which is reproduced naturally after preparation of the soil and sowing acorns for admixture at the same time, spending altogether $12 to $15 per acre in this preparation. Since 1880, thinnings have been based on the idea of favoring final harvest trees somewhat after the French fashion; they are begun in the twentieth to thirtieth year and are repeated every three years, aided by pruning. Then in each subsequent decade the return occurs in as many years as the decade has tens. Especially in the direction of thinnings, the German practice and even theory is outdone, the thinnings being made severer and recurring more frequently.

More than a hundred years ago the State began the reclamation work of the dunes and heaths, but it progressed more actively only since the sixties of last century as a result of legislation had in 1857. In 1867, a special Dune Department was instituted, and through the effort of a State engineer, Capt. Dalgas, an association was formed for the reclamation of heaths and moors. A small subvention of $600 started the work of the association, in its useful campaign under the advice of Staats planteur (State forest planter) Jensen Tusch. The State subvention now amounts to about forty thousand dollars annually, and the success of the association has been such that it has become almost a fad for large land owners and others to buy up these waste lands and have them planted through the agents of the Heath Association. The planting is mainly of spruce in plow furrows at a cost of $10 to $12 per acre; 60 to 80 year old stands of earlier plantings testifying to the possible results.

In the last 40 years nearly 200,000 acres of heath have been planted, of which over one-half are to the credit of the association.

For the education of the higher grade foresters a department of forestry (now with two professors) was instituted in the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural High School at Copenhagen in 1869, with a course of five years including one and a half year of practical work. This education is given free of charge.

The Heath Association educates its own officers, including in their subjects the management of meadows and peatbogs.

A Forestry Association, composed one-half of forest owners, with its organ Tidskrift for Skovvaesen, in existence since 1888, and a valuable book literature, in which the problems of the heath are especially fully and authoritatively treated, places Denmark in the foremost rank in the forestry world in these particulars.

Among the prominent contributors are to be mentioned, besides Reventlow and Dalgas, P. E. Müller, well known by his discussions of the problems of moor soils. From 1876 to 1891, he issued a magazine, in which Oppermann contributed a history of Danish forestry. The latter author also, in co-operation with Hauch, published in 1900 a Hand-book of Forestry.