A Brief History of Forestry. B. E. Fernow
English or American readers: the style has been sacrificed to brevity; it is a book of expanded lecture notes.
In the nature of the case the book does not lay claim to any originality except in the manner of presentation, being merely a compilation of facts gathered mostly from other compilations, official documents and journals.
For none of the countries discussed does a complete work on the history of forests and forestry exist, excepting in the case of Germany, which can boast of a number of comprehensive works on the subject. It was, therefore, possible to treat that country more in extenso. Moreover, it appeared desirable to enlarge upon the history of that country, since it is pre-eminently in the lead in forestry matters and has passed through all the stages of development of forest policies and forestry practice, which, with more or less variations must be repeated in other countries.
Especially the growth of the technical science and art of forestry, which has been developed in Germany for a longer time and to a more refined degree than in other countries, has been elaborated in the chapter relating to that country.
For some of the other countries available sources of information were quite limited. The writer believes, however, that for the purpose of this brief statement the data collected will be found sufficient.
In order to make conditions existing in the different countries and their causes more readily understood it appeared desirable to give very brief historic references to their political and economic development and also brief statements of their general physical conditions.
Present conditions of forest policy and forest administration have sometimes been enlarged upon beyond the requirements of historical treatment.
Ithaca, N.Y., May, 1907.B. E. Fernow.
INTRODUCTORY.
The value of studying the historical development of an economic subject or of a technical art which, like forestry, relies to a large extent upon empiricism, lies in the fact that it brings before us, in proper perspective, accumulated experience, and enables us to analyze cause and effect, whereby we may learn to appreciate the reasons for present conditions and the possibilities for rational advancement.
If there be one philosophy more readily derivable than another from the study of the history of forestry it is that history repeats itself. The same policies and the same methods which we hear propounded to-day have at some other time been propounded and tried elsewhere: we can study the results, broadening our judgment and thereby avoid the mistakes of others.
Nowhere is the record of experience and the historic method of study of more value than in an empiric art like forestry, in which it takes decades, a lifetime, nay a century to see the final effects of operations.
Such study, if properly pursued, tends to free the mind from many foolish prejudices and particularly from an unreasonable partiality for our own country and its customs and methods merely because they are our own, substituting the proper patriotism, which applies the best knowledge, wherever found, to our own necessities.
Forestry is an art born of necessity, as opposed to arts of convenience and of pleasure. Only when a reduction in the natural supplies of forest products under the demands of civilization, necessitates a husbanding of supplies or necessitates the application of art or skill or knowledge in securing a reproduction, or when unfavorable conditions of soil or climate induced by forest destruction make themselves felt does the art of forestry make its appearance. Hence its beginnings occur in different places at different times and its development proceeds at different paces.
In the one country, owing to economic development, the need of an intensive forest management and of strict forest policies may have arrived, while in another, rough exploitation and wasteful practices are still natural and practically unavoidable. And such differences, as we shall see, may even exist in the different parts of the same country.
The origin and growth of the art, then, is dependent on economic and cultural conditions, on various economic development and on elements of environment. The development of the art can only be understood and appreciated through the knowledge of such environment, of such other developments as of agriculture, of industries, of means of transportation, of civilization generally.
Hence we find, for instance, that England, located so as to be accessible by sea from all points of the compass and with oceanic shipping well developed, can apparently dispense with serious consideration of the forest supply question.
Again, we find that more than a century ago fear of a timber famine agitated not only the dense populations of many European countries, but even the scanty population of the United States, in spite of the natural forest wealth which is still supplying us; and not without good reason, for at that time wood was the only fuel and rivers the only means of transportation; hence local scarcity was to be feared and was not unfrequently experienced when accessible forest areas had been exploited. Railroad and canal development and the use of coal for fuel changed this condition on both continents. Now, with improved means of transportation by land and by sea, the questions of wood supply and of forestry development, which at one time were of very local concern, have become world questions, and he who proposes to discuss intelligently forest conditions and forestry movement in one country must understand what is going on in other countries.
As will appear from the study of the following pages, with the exception of some parts of central Europe or of some sporadic attempts elsewhere to regulate forest use, the development of the forestry idea belongs essentially to the 19th century, and more especially to the second half, when the rapid development of railroads had narrowed the world, and the remarkable development of industries and material civilization called for increased draft on forest resources.
Yet we are still largely ignorant as to the extent of available forest area, not only in this country but elsewhere: we do not know whether it be sufficient in extent and yield to furnish a continuous supply for the needs of our civilization, or, if not, for how long a time it will suffice. We can only make very broad statements as to questions of wood supply, and very broad inferences from them as argument for the need of a closer study of forest conditions and of the practice of forestry:
1. Practically, the northern temperate zone alone produces the kinds of wood which enter most largely into our economy, namely the soft conifers and the medium hard woods; most of the woods of the tropics are very hard, fit primarily for ornamental use and hence less necessary. Possibly a change in the methods of the use of wood may also change the relative economic values, but at present the vast forests of the tropical countries are of relatively little importance in the discussion of wood supply for the world.
2. The productive forest area, of the temperate zone, in which the industrial nations are located, has continuously decreased. We shall not be far from wrong in stating this area liberally, to be at present around 2,500 million acres,[1] namely in Europe, 800 million acres; in Asia, 800 million acres; in North America, 900 million acres. How much of this acreage contains available virgin timber, how much is merely potential forest, how much growing crop, it is impossible to state.
[1] The total forest area of the world is supposed to be 3,800 million acres.
3. The civilized wood consuming population of this territory is about 500 million, hence the per capita acreage is still 5 acres. Taking the European countries which now have to import all or part of their consumption (excess over exports), we find that their population is estimated at 180 million and that they use 30 cubic feet of wood per capita, of which 12 cubic feet is log timber; or altogether they use 2,200 million cubic feet of this latter description, of which they import in round numbers 1,000 million at a cost of about 250 million dollars; their forest acreage of 100 million acres being insufficient to produce, even under careful management as in Germany, more than two-thirds of their needs. And the wood consumption in all these nations