10 TRANSACTIONS OF liOYAL SCOTTISH ARBOrvlCULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



the large number of cattle and other animals which have to be 

 kept alive, and also on account of the revenue realised from it. 

 The forest pastures are very extensive, and their existence is, as 

 has previously been explained, one of the principal causes to which 

 the present bad condition of the forests is attributable. It has 

 been assumed that 1 buffalo, 1 horse, 3 donkeys, 3 pigs, 10 sheep, 

 and 1 goat, each of them require as large a provision in grazing as 

 1 ox or cow — 



3 oxen under 3 years of age Vieing equal to 2 full-grown animals. 

 2 horses ,, 3 ,, ,,1 ,, animal. 



2 donkeys ,, 2 ,, ,,1 ,, ,, 



4 j'oung pigs ,, 1 ,, ,, 



3 lambs or kids ,, 1 ,, ,, 



And on this assumption, the equivalent of 8,300,000 oxen has to 

 be provided for. But it has been calculated that the non-forest 

 grazing grounds do not, at the most liberal rate of production, 

 yield enough grass for more than 5,300,000 oxen ; and as stall 

 feeding is very rarely practised, three millions of cattle have to be 

 provided for in the forests. But if every acre were made available 

 which could, without risk to the crop of trees, be opened for grazing, 

 not more than one-fourth of the three millions of oxen could be 

 properly fed ; and this fully explains why the forest pastures are 

 now being ruined by over-grazing, while the cattle are, generally 

 speaking, in very poor condition. Legislation on the subject is 

 urgently needed. People in Hungary, as well as in other countries, 

 sometimes assert that the forests do not suffer from grazing ; and 

 they cite examples to prove that they have known very well, and 

 carefully watched for the last twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years, 

 such and such forests, which have always been full of cattle, and 

 still continue to exist. But, notwithstanding this evidence, it is 

 certain that, even where forests too heavily grazed over have not 

 disappeared entirely, they have suffered severely in their rate of 

 growth and in the quality of the wood they produce, while their 

 complete disappearance is only a matter of time. 



The damage done by fires is not so serious in the north as it is 

 in the south and east, where shepherds frequently devastate large 

 areas by burning them over, in order to obtain fresh pasture for 

 their flocks. Attacks by insects, principally Bostrichus typograplius, 

 are frequent, especially in the eastern provinces ; here also dangerous 

 storms very often occur. It is said that in 1884 the damage done 



