_Waldgeschichte des Alterthums_, by AUGUST SEIDENSTICKER, 1886, 2
vols., pp. 863, is a most painstaking compilation from original
sources of notes regarding the forest conditions and the knowledge
of trees, forests and forestry among the ancients. Contains also a
full bibliography.
_Die Waldwirthschaft der Rœmer_, by J. TRURIG, collects the
knowledge, especially of arboriculture and silviculture, possessed
by the Romans.
_Forstwissenschaftliche Leistungen der Altgriechen_, by Dr. CHLOROS,
in Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1885, pp. 8.
_Archeologia forestale, Dell’ antica storia e giurisprudenza
forestale in Italia_, by A. DI BERENGER, 1859.
The forest was undoubtedly the earliest home of mankind, its edible
products forming its principal value. Its wild animals developed the
hunter, the chase first furnishing means of subsistence and then
exhilaration and pleasure. Next, it was the mast and, in its openings,
the pasture which gave to the forest its value for the herder, and only
last, with the development into settled communities and more highly
civilized conditions of life, did the wood product become its main
contribution toward that civilization. Finally, in the refinement of
cultural conditions in densely settled countries is added its influence
on soil, climate and water conditions.
Although there is no written history, there is little doubt that these
were the phases in the appreciation of woodlands in the earliest
development of mankind, for we find the same phases repeated in our own
times in all newly settled countries.
As agriculture develops, the need for farming ground overshadows the
usefulness of the forest in all these directions, and it is cleared
away; moreover, as population remains scanty, a wasteful use of its
stores forms the rule, until necessity arises for greater care in the
exploitation, for more rational distribution of farm and forest area,
and finally for intentional reproduction of wood as a useful crop.
Correspondingly forest conditions change from the densely forested hills
and mountain slopes during the age of the nomad and hunter to the
“enclaves” or patches of field and pasture enclosed by the forest of the
first farmers, then follows the opening up of the valleys and lowlands,
while the hill and mountain farms may return to forest, and finally,
with the increase of population and civilization in valleys and plains,
a reduction of the forest area and a decrease of forest wealth results.