A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other CountriesFernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
History
A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other Countries
Fernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
Forests and forestry -- History
In Attica as well as in Rome the theory that the State cannot
satisfactorily carry on any business was well established. Hence, the
State forests were rented out under a system of time rent or a perpetual
license, the renters after exploiting the timber usually subletting the
culled woods merely for the pasture, except where coppice could be
profitably utilized. The officials, with titles referring to their
connection with the woods, as the Roman _saltuarii_ or the Greek
_hyloroi_ (forestguards) and _villici silvarum_, the overseers, both
grades taken from the slaves, had hardly even police functions.
_Forest management_ proper, _i.e._, regulated use for continuity, except
in coppice, seems nowhere to have been practiced by the ancients,
although _arboriculture_ in artificial plantations was well established
and occasionally even attempts at replacement in forest fashion seem to
have been made deliberately. Not only were many arboricultural practices
of to-day well known to them, but also a number of the still unsettled
controversies in this field were then already subjects of discussion.
The culling system of taking only the most desirable kinds, trees and
cuts, which until recently has characterized our American lumbering
methods was naturally the one under which the mixed forest was
utilized. Fire used in the pasture woods for the same purposes as with
us effectively prevented reproduction in these, and destroyed gradually
the remnants of old trees.
Only where for park and hunting purposes some care was bestowed upon the
woodland, was reproduction purposely attempted, as, for instance, when
in a hunting park an underwood was to be established for game cover.
The treatment of the coppice and methods of sowing and planting were
well understood in spite of the lack of natural sciences. Whatever
forestry practice existed was based merely on empirical observations and
was taught in the books on agriculture as a part of farm practice.
Silviculture was mainly developed in connection with the coppice, which
was systematically practiced for the purpose of growing vineyard stakes,
especially with chestnut (_castanetum_), oak (_quercetum_), and willow
(_salicetum_), while the _arbustum_ denoted the plantings of trees for
the support of grapes, and incidentally for the foliage used as cattle
feed, still in vogue in modern Italy.
This planting of vine supports was done with saplings of elm, poplar and
some other species; by pollarding and by a well devised system of
pruning, these were gradually prepared and maintained in proper form for
their purpose.
The coppice seems to have been systematically managed in Attica as well
as in Italy in regular fellings; the mild climate producing sprouts and
root suckers readily without requiring much care, even conifers
(cypress and fir) reproducing in this manner.
The oak coppice was managed in 7 year rotation, the chestnut in 5 year,
and the willow in 3 year rotation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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