In 1903, there were employed as administrators or managers 119 State (Cantonal) foresters and 33 Communal foresters, besides 11 Federal forest officials. In 1909, the total number had grown to 193, besides 1091 under-foresters, to whose salaries the Bund contributed. The State foresters are allowed to manage neighbouring communal properties.
3. Forestry Practice.
The timber forest is the most general form of silvicultural management. Selection forest with 150 to 200 year rotations is practised in the Alps and in the smaller private forest areas. Shelterwood system in compartments is in use in other parts (with a rotation of 60 to 80 years in the deciduous, and 80 to 120 years in conifer forest), supplanting largely the clearing and planting system which had found favor during the middle of last century.
In corporation forests, large areas are still under coppice with standards, but will probably soon be converted into timber forest, a policy favored by cantonal instructions. Pure coppice is only rarely met, usually confined to the overflow lands and small private holdings. In some of the public forests in the French territory it is practised with a “double rotation” (furetage) according to French pattern.
Artificial means to secure complete stands in natural regenerations is favored by the cantonal regulations, but thinning operations are still mostly neglected, except where local market for inferior material makes them advisable, which is mostly in the plains country, where the annual yield from thinnings may represent 30% of the total harvest yield.
Conversion from coppice and coppice with standards into timber forest, and change from clearing systems to natural regeneration (proper for mountain forest), and from pure to mixed forest have become general provisions of the working plans.
The average cut in the State forests during four years prior to 1893 was over 64 cub. ft. p. acre, and 42 cub. ft. for the corporation forests; an average for all the public forests of round 45 cub. ft.,—not a very good showing as yet. So far, the collection of material for yield tables and for a statement of increment and stock on hand in the country at large are still insufficient, although, in 1882, Prof. Landolt estimated the annual product at little less than 500 million cubic feet, or 50 cubic feet per acre.
Only for the intensively managed city forests of Zürich and the cantonal forests of Bern are more accurate data available. In the latter, the State forests yield 50 cubic feet in the plateau country, 73 cubic feet, in the middle country, and 76 cubic feet in the Jura, while the communal forests of that canton yield 15, 66 and 56 cubic feet respectively. Prices for wood are higher in the low country than the average in Germany and have been steadily rising for the last 40 years, especially for coniferous saw material which at present brings stumpage prices of 12 to 15 cents.
Owing to these high prices the gross yield of some Swiss forests is the largest known in Europe; the city forest of Zürich, exhibiting yields of $12, and the city forest of Aarau as much as $14 per acre on the average, although in the Alps forests the gross yield sinks to $3 and $4. The more intensively managed city forests mentioned spend on their management $6 and even $7 per acre, while most of the State forests keep their expenditures within $2.50 to $3.50, and in some places down to $1.50 per acre. The net yields vary therefore for the State and communal forests of the plateau country between $3 and $6.50 for some of the city forests from $6.50 to $8 and $9.