170 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



forests cover 3,000,000 acres, and they return, after paying 

 all expenses, about $1.50 per acre. 



They plant annually 30,000 acres, requiring 35,000,000 

 plants and 1,000,000 pounds of seed. 



In Austria, much of their domain has been sold of late 

 years, but they now have nearly or quite 2,000,000 acres, 

 which yield a net profit of twenty-five cents per acre. 



In France, the government owns 7,500,000 acres of forests, 

 while 15,000,000 acres are owned by the farmers and private 

 corporations; but in one sense it may be said to be all under 

 government control, for by a well regulated system of pro- 

 tecting and preserving, adopted by the government a num- 

 ber of years ago by purchase and by enactments, these vast 

 fores:^s are now not only a source of wealth for their com- 

 mercial value, but by this system barren fields are becoming 

 fertile, and thousands of acres which by their conformation 

 were being washed away, are now protected and saved. 



The French government have, at great expense, replanted 

 vast and almost barren districts, and have established great 

 forests along the sea shore where formerly the sand threat- 

 ened to destroy large areas, and by this judicious method 

 they have averted the evil, and this barren waste will in a 

 few years be a source of revenue as well as benefiting in a 

 climatic point. 



In Russia, the government owns about 330,000,000 acres, 

 and other parties some 150,000,000 acres. About forty per 

 cent, of Russia in Europe is timber land, and these immense 

 forests are placed under the care of a minister of the public 

 domain, who has a director of forest department, with as- 

 sistants. And the Russian government has within a few 

 years established two schools of agriculture and forestry, 

 one at St. Petersburg and the other at Moscow. 



One hundred years ago Ontario was a forest country, and 

 now it is only from ten to twenty per cent, of timber, with 

 millions of acres of barren waste lands, and no increase to 

 replace this waste of timber. In 1883, the province of On- 

 tario distributed 15,000 copies of their forestry report, giving 

 directions and instructions calculated to encourage and stim- 

 ulate the planting of forest trees. 



