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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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