Political History. 153 



especially in the fact that private forest property in 

 large holdings is predomina nt, and that large areas 

 are still untouched or just opened to exploitation, so 

 that Austria is still in the list of export countries, 

 although in some parts intensive management has 

 been long in existence. 



In the main, although movements for reform in 

 forest use date back to the middle ages, the condition 

 of forestry in Austria was past the middle of the 19th 

 century still most deplorable, and in a stage of develop- 

 ment which most of the German States had passed 

 long before ; but in the last 50 years such progress has 

 been made that both science and practice stand nearly 

 if not quite on the same level with those of their 

 German neighbors. 



If Germany exhibits in its different parts a great 

 variety of development, political and economic, 

 Austria, although long under one family of rulers (since 

 1526), exhibits a still greater variety due to racial, 

 natural, and historical differences within its own 

 borders. It is, indeed, an extraordinary and singular 

 country, without an equal of its kind (except perhaps 

 Turkey) in that it is not a national, but a dynastic 

 power, composed of unrelated states or lands, with 

 people speaking different languages, mixed races 

 widely different in character. These were gradually 

 aggregated under one head or ruling family, the 

 Hapsburgs, who as Archdukes of Austria occupied 

 the elective position of German Emperors for several 

 generations, and after the collapse of the Empire, in 

 1806, retained the title and called themselves Em- 

 perors of Austria. 



