NOTES ON CONTINENTAL FORESTRY. lOI 



tramway lines have been constructed, having a total length of 

 37I miles. 



Planting is, however, the chief work of the Society, and up 

 to the end of 1901 it had made 1449 plantations, covering 135,600 

 acres. When planting is desired by a private landowner, a plan 

 of operations is first drawn up, and if the proprietor is willing to 

 subject such areas to the provisions of the Forest Conservancy 

 Law, the Society obtains a State grant towards the cost of 

 planting. As a rule, the planting is a mixture of two rows 

 spruce and one row mountain pine ; but previous to planting, the 

 soil is well prepared for some years in advance (details of which 

 are not yet given). 



A great deal of planting also takes place for providing shelter 

 from wind to farm-houses, fields, and meadows. About 50 

 planting-unions, with 25,000 members, have been formed for 

 this special purpose; and the State subsidy to the Moorland 

 Society on behalf of these small unions amounts to ;!^385o. 

 Further, the Society publishes a journal of its own, and arranges 

 for collections and exhibitions of forest produce, moorland imple- 

 ments, etc. 



The Moorland Society of Denmark has a wide field still open 

 for its work, because more than 750,000 acres of waste land 

 await improvement and cultivation. 



The action of the State in France, Germany, and Denmark 

 seems well worthy of imitation by our own Government. Our 

 waste lands can certainly never be planted extensively unless the 

 work is either done by direct State agency, or else assisted by 

 State subsidies in one way or another. And it seems to me 

 that the best means of bringing about such a desirable state 

 of activity throughout Great Britain and Ireland would be to 

 obtain complete information concerning — (i) what has been 

 done, (2) what is being done, and (3) what is about to be 

 undertaken in future, in the way of planting wind-swept waste 

 lands in Denmark and Prussia, which are the portions of Con- 

 tinental Europe where the climatic conditions most closely 

 resemble those obtaining throughout the United Kingdom. 



Planting, thinning, felling, and every other kind of woodland 

 work can be done much cheaper in Prussia than in any part 

 of the United Kingdom. The official statistics for 1902 show 

 that throughout the Prussian State Forests the average wages 

 paid for daily labour, in different localities, were as follows: — 



