1885.] THE FORESTS OF EU HOPE. 44'.) 



in Japan dignified by the word " farmini^." Besides, farm labour is 

 so cheap that it is })ractically impossible to overbid it with labour- 

 saving machinery. Male field hands work twelve hours per day, 

 have five holidays in each month, and receive their food, lodging, 

 and wages, ranging from 10 to 15 yen (.£1, 14s. to £2, 10s.) per 

 annum. Temale labourers work the same hours, are not entitled to 

 holidays, and receive, beside their food and lodging, about 7 yen 

 (£1, 4s.) per annum. This sketch of the agriculture of the country 

 about the same size as our own, l)eing in such marked contrast to 

 the great exhibition at Preston, cannot fail to bo of interest to 

 Entilish farmers. 



THE FORESTS OF EUROPE. 



BY IIP:N'rvY F. MOOKE, FROME. 



SOME statistics on the Forests of Europe recently collected by 

 Monsieur Noel, Bretagne, and given in the Journal OJficicl at 

 Paris, show that of all the forest wealth of France there only remain 

 in round numbers, comprising the various categories of proprietors, 

 22,000,000 acres, the greater part of which is composed of woods 

 of almost no practical value, besides a similar acreage, generally the 

 remains of ancient forests that have been destroyed. The state 

 owned in 1V91, according to reports of that epoch, 4,213,088 

 acres; in 1795, 6,400,939 acres; in 1820, 3,001,362 acres; 

 in 1880, 2,777,148 acres: there now only remain 2,389,887 

 acres. Since the year 1820 more than 741,342 acres of forest 

 belonging to the State have been sold to private individuals. Tiie 

 tract of communal forests and of woodland owned by private 

 persons has decreased in still greater proportion. For the last fifty 

 years more than 1,112,013 acres of forests owned by private 

 owners have been cut down. Austria in the same period from 

 1790 to 1880 increased its forest superficies by 694,871 acres. 

 IJuring the past twenty years the forests of Bavaria have gained 

 129,971 acres. The same progression is observed in Switzerland 

 and in the German States. A forest cannot be valued merely 

 according to its extent. An acre covered with trees one hundred, 

 one hundred and fifty, or two hundred years old, will give without 

 doubt in the same period much more considerable and useful product 

 than an acre of trees cut every fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, 

 the proportion being as 7 is to 4. In France, only 41 per cent, of 



