Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/421

Forestry Abroad and at Home

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ered the whole field as it was then understood, and together they exerted an influence which has not been approached by any other authors since. From Germany their teaching spread to France, and early in the nineteenth century their doctrines were introduced into the French Forest School at Nancy by Lorentz, who, with his successor, Parade, was the founder of modern forestry in France.

Under the feudal system, which was finally destroyed in France by the revolution of 1789, the forest was the property of the feudal lord. In order to make the life of their serfs, who were useful both as taxpayers and as fighting men, easier, and so increase their number, he gave them the privilege of taking from his forest the wood which they required. For similar reasons the wealthy religious houses, like that of the Grande Chartreuse, made grants of land and of rights in the forest. But after a time the number of peasants increased so much that their wants absorbed nearly the whole produce of the woodlands. Then it was found necessary to limit the prescriptive rights to forest product by restricting them to certain parts of the forest, or to make an end of them by exchanging them for the absolute ownership of smaller areas. Thus many of the communities, to which, and not to individual peasants, these rights belonged, came to possess forests of their own. But the communes, as they were called, managed their forests badly, and about three hundred years ago the government was forced to intervene. Under the management of officers of the government forest service the results from the communal forests have been excellent. At present these forests not only supply fuel to the villages which own them, but in some cases they produce enough to pay all the village taxes as well.

GERMANY Germany still holds the high position in forest science, which began with Hartig and Cotta. The German forest schools, of which there are seven of the higher grades, are still among the very best, and the study of forestry, both in the schools and in the forest experiment stations, is eagerly pursued. The forests in Prussia, Saxony, and other German states are admirably managed and yield important returns. The total value of the German forests, public and private, is said to be about $4,500,000,- 000.

FRANCE

Forestry in France has long been associated with the names of famous men. Henry of Navarre and his friend and minister, Sully ; Palissy, the great potter, who called the neglect of the forest prevalent in his time ' ' not a mistake, but a calamity and a curse for France ; " Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV ; the botanist Duhamel du Monceau ; Buffon, the celebrated naturalist, are among the men to whom France owes the rise and progress of her present excellent forest policy. Their peculiar service was to lay the foundation, both in law and in public opinion, upon which modern forestry in France now rests.

The forests of the French government are admirably managed. They cover only about 2,750,000 acres, but they yield a net return each year of more than $2 per acre. Besides handling their natural forests with great intelligence and success, the French foresters have done much for the general progress of forestry. They developed the art of reforesting denuded mountains, and were the first to plant trees on moving sand dunes along the seashore. More than 150,000 acres of these dunes, which once were blown about by the wind until they overwhelmed great stretches of fertile ground, and even threatened to bury whole towns, are now covered with forests of pine, which produce great