Abstract
THE Report of Mr. Conway Thornton to the Foreign Office, on the Swiss Forest Laws, is a careful and interesting piece of work. He divides his subject into two parts: in the first he treats of the history of forestry prior to 1875, the year in which the Act now in force, the Forestry Act of 1875, was proposed; and in the second part he deals with that Act, its provisions and its effects, and the measures taken under the “Règlement d'Exécution,” which followed the Act, for the advancement of technical education amongst foresters in Switzerland. It is evident that from a very early date the various cantons endeavoured to preserve the forests. Thus, in 1314 the authorities of Zurich forbade “the felling, floating, or selling” of timber from the Sihlwald; in 1339, Schwyz forbade charcoal-burning near the chief towns of the canton, and a similar decree was promulgated in Fribourg in 1438. Industries using wood were in various cantons restricted in their operations; the laying out of new vineyards was prohibited under heavy penalties for centuries; and finally, during last century, the use of uncloven vine-props was forbidden. The exportation of timber took place only under great difficulties, and even the removal of timber from one place to another in Switzerland was, until 1848, very much restricted. In 1376, Zurich forbade clearings to be laid down in pasture, and Fribourg would not allow sheep-pastures to be established in clearings. Goats were not permitted to be let loose in the woods; and rosin-scrapers were excluded from many of the forests. None of these numerous decrees appear to have had much effect, the very number of them testifying to their powerlessness to check the evil. In many cases the general prohibition against wood-cutting gave way to a partial permission, as, for example, in Zurich, where the number felled was not permitted to exceed a stated total. This instance of Zurich gives us the first scientific treatment of the question, when the felling of the Sihlwald and other woods in the fourteenth century was regulated both as to the amount and the system of cutting.
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Swiss Forest Laws . Nature 37, 490–492 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/037490a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037490a0