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
Private forestry is, of course, much less developed; yet some large
properties (Princess Schoenburg, with 20,000 acres) are under efficient
German forest management. Here, money is spent on developing means of
transportation, and a better revenue is secured than in State forests.
GREECE.
DR. CHLOROS, Waldverhältnisse Griechenlands. Thesis for the
Doctorate at Munich. 1884. 45 pp.
ANDERLIND, Mittheilungen über die Waldverhältnisse Griechenlands.
Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung. 1884.
The history of the country has been so unfortunate, and political
conditions so unsettled that only lately efforts at improvement in
economic conditions could hope to receive attention. For centuries after
Greece had become a Roman province (146 B.C.), it changed rulers,
Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians following each other, until,
between 1460 and 1473, it came under the Turkish yoke. As a result of
an insurrection started in 1821, freedom, but no settled order as yet,
was attained in 1829 through the assistance of Great Britain, France and
Russia, and the elected kings, Otho (of Bavaria), Alfred (of England)
and George (of Denmark) successively tried to secure social order and
efficient constitutional government.
By the time this new era had arrived there was probably little valuable
forest worthy of the name left, except in the inaccessible mountain
districts.
1. _Forest Conditions._
Although certain districts, like Attica, were already practically
denuded in Plato’s time, there is little doubt that originally the whole
of Greece with small exceptions was a continuous forest. The destruction
of the forest, protected by thousands of gods and nymphs in holy groves,
proceeded slowly under the regime of the ancient Greeks, until the
fanaticism of the Christian religion led to a war against these pagan
strongholds, and the holy groves were reduced by axe and fire. Turkish
misrule for centuries, over-taxation, reckless cutting, extensive
herding of goats and sheep, and fires have reduced the forest area until
now it occupies only 12 or 14 per cent. of the land area (25,000 square
miles). In 1854, a survey developed about 2 million acres of woodlands
(probably an excessive figure) for the now 2.5 million people, while 67
per cent. of the surface is a useless waste, and only 20 per cent. under
cultivation, so that the general aspect of the country is desolate. The
many islands are entirely deforested, and so are the seashores. “Where
in olden times dense shady poplars stood, now only infertile sand and
dreary rock waste remain.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account