REFORESTATION OF DENMARK 



529 



which laid its eggs in the caterpillar, 

 and after nine years the pest almost 

 disappeared. 



The experiences and discoveries of 

 the Heath Society have been made fruit- 

 ful also on the Danish Islands, and have 

 been applied in neighboring countries ; 

 in fact, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, 

 and Finns have all studied and applied 

 the methods developed by the society. 



An interesting experiment has been 

 made in connection with this work by 

 employing in the cultivation of the 

 heath prisoners from the state peniten- 

 tiary for hard labor. About ten years 

 ago, during the summer, a small num- 

 ber of prisoners were taken out to an 

 isolated part of the heath in the middle 

 of Jutland, at a placed called Gedhus, 

 and were there employed in all the va- 

 rious work connected with the prep- 

 aration of the soil and the planting of 

 the trees, under the supervision of two 

 prison officials. Difficulties of various 

 kinds had been anticipated, and many 

 people were strongly opposed to the ex- 

 periment, but it proved a complete suc- 

 cess. Every year an increasing number 

 of prisoners has been employed on the 

 heath. The behavior of the prisoners 

 has been perfect ; they have enjoyed 

 their work, the relative freedom and 

 the life in the open air, and they 



have had the great satisfaction of 

 seeing the results of their work 

 growing from year to year. Work on 

 the heath has, in fact, always been con- 

 sidered by the prisoners a great privi- 

 lege, and is granted only to those who 

 stand highest in point of behavior. 

 There are now some forty or fifty pris- 

 oners employed every summer on the 

 heath, and a considerable amount of 

 work has already been done this way. 



The foregoing brief and imperfect 

 sketch is a summary of the informa- 

 tion and impressions obtained by the 

 author during a visit to the Jutland 

 heath and its plantations last summer ; 

 it is written for the purpose of draw- 

 ing the attention of people in the United 

 States to the work done and the methods 

 applied in a country which has already 

 gone through all the phases ; abundance 

 of primeval forests, deforestation, and 

 the preservation and planting of forests. 



The United States stands at present 

 in the midst of the second stage, the de- 

 forestation, which is proceeding at an 

 alarming rate ; it may, therefore, be 

 well for people of this country to turn 

 their eyes to Denmark, where, at any 

 rate, the natural difficulties to be over- 

 come in point of climate and quality of 

 soil far exceed those confronting the 

 forester in the United States. 



