296 WOODLAND IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. 



if trees produce a better profit than tlie same ground would re* 

 turn if devoted to grass or grain, tlie wood should be substituted 

 for the field. 



Woodla/nd in Eurojpecm Countries. 



In 1862, Rentzsch calculated the proportions of woodland in 

 different European countries as follows : * 



Norway 66 per cent. 



Sweden 60 



Russia 30.90 



Gei-many 26.58 " 



Belgium 18.53 " 



France. 16.79 " 



Switzerland 15 " 



Sardinia 12.29 " 



Neapolitan States 9.43 " 



Holland 7.10 " 



Spain 5.52 " 



Denmark 5.50 " 



Great Britain 5 " 



Portugal 4.40 



The large proportion of woodland in Norway and Sweden is 

 in a great measure to be ascribed to the mountainous character of 

 the surface, which renders the construction of roads difiicult and 

 expensive, and hence tlie forests are comparatively inaccessible, 

 and transportation is too costly to tempt the inhabitants to sacri- 

 fice their woods for the sake of supplying distant markets. 



The industries which employ wood as a material have only 

 lately been much developed in these countries, and though the 

 climate requires the consumption of much wood as a fuel, the 

 population is not numerous enough to create, for this purpose, a 

 demand exceeding the annually produced supply, or to need any 

 great extension of cleared ground for agricultural purposes. Be- 

 sides this, in many places peat is generally employed as domestic 

 fuel. Hence, though Norway has long exported a considerable 

 quantity of lumber, f and the iron and copper works of Sweden 



* Ber Wald, pp. 123, 134. 



f Railway-ties, or, as they are called in England, sleepers, are largely ex- 

 ported from Norway to India, and sold at Calcutta at a lower price than tim- 

 ber of equal quality can be obtained from the native woods. — Reports on For- 

 est Conservancy, vol. i., pt. ii., p. 1533. 



From 1861 to 1870 Norway exported annually, on the average, more than 



