78 A PRIMER OF FORESTRY. 



managed. They cover only about 2,750,000 acres, but 

 they yield a net return each year of more than $2 per 

 acre. Besides handling their national forests with 

 great intelligence and success, the French foresters 

 have done much for the general progress of forestry. 

 They developed the art of reforesting denuded moun- 

 tains, and were the first to plant trees on moving sand 

 dunes along the seashore. More than 150,000 acres 

 of these dunes, which once were blown about by the 

 wind until they overwhelmed great stretches of fertile 

 ground, and even threatened to bury whole towns, are 

 now covered with forests of pine, and produce great 

 quantities of turpentine, lumber, and charcoal. 



Switzerland. 



In Switzerland forestry received attention from very 

 early times. Nearly two hundred years before the 

 discovery of America the city of Zurich began to make 

 rules for the protection and management of the Sihl- 

 wald, a forest which it still owns, and which now yields 

 an annual return of about $8 per acre. In the Canton 

 of Bern a decree of the year 1592 warned the people 

 against the wasteful use of timber and provided for the 

 protection of the forest along various lines. It also 

 directed that for every tree cut down a young one 

 should be planted in its place. It is curious to find this 

 mistaken prescription for the ills of the forest already 

 in fashion more than three centuries ago. To save the 

 forest every old tree must be replaced by many young 

 ones. 



The first general forest law of Bern was passed as 

 early as 1725. It embodied the most important princi- 



