62 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A writer in the Quarterly Journal of the Society of Franche 

 Comte and Belfort gives a note on the forests of Norway. The 

 net result of his observations is that the forests are very thin 

 and the trees small, that the felling is very considerable, but that 

 reafforestation is also progressing well. The value of the exports 

 of wood is some ^5,200,000 a year. The State forests are less 

 valuable than the private forests, but since 1870 the State has 

 been buying forests, or land for reboisement, and has thus 

 acquired some 382,000 acres of the former and 7700 acres of 

 the latter. The State encourages afforestation in various ways. 

 Thus 39,000,000 trees had been planted in the six first years of 

 the century — -7,000,000 of them by school children. Besides 

 encouragement of afforestation there is also discouragement of 

 over felling, and in several districts a minimum girth for felling 

 is laid down, subject to penalties for infringement. 



There is also a long report on the forests of Norway in the 

 Revue des Eaux et Forets, from which we gather the following 

 additional facts : — The forests run up to 70° latitude, and more 

 than half of the State forests are north of latitude 65°, while 

 many are at high altitudes. Thus, while the net returns of 

 forests belonging to public establishments are more than seven 

 shillings an acre, those of the State forests are not much over 

 fourpence. Private proprietors own 85 per cent, of the v.^oods, 

 and the best of them. The number of private proprietors is 

 relatively small. They have foresters of their own, who receive 

 higher pay than the Government officers but have larger areas 

 to control. Rights of user are numerous everywhere. We at 

 home are fortunate to be free of such things, for they are a 

 great tax on woodlands and impede satisfactory working. At 

 3300 feet all tree vegetation ceases. While the sea makes for 

 warmth, the latitude and altitude make for cold. More than 

 three-quarters of the surface of Norway is rendered useless by 

 rock, ice and marsh, and there is much peat land. The soil is 

 thin and generally poor. The chief tree is the Scots pine, 

 which grows tall and large and of good quality ; it reaches 

 latitude 70°. The spruce grows tall, but is only of medium 

 quality; it is found to 67°. Birch [Betuia verrucosa and also 

 B. alba) is very common ; it extends far north and reaches 

 the highest altitudes attained by tree growth. These three 

 trees form, broadly speaking, the forests of Norway, but 

 alder and Sorbus aucuparia are also extensively found. The 



