Forest Conditions. 337 



Of the forest area, 25 per cent, is to be found in the 

 Alps, about 50 per cent, on the Apennines, the one 

 mountain range which forms the backbone of Italy; 

 less than one-quarter is distributed over the plains, 

 and the small balance is found on the islands, especi- 

 ally Sicily, which is a hill and mountain country, once 

 magnificently wooded, now largely denuded (4 per 

 cent, wooded), and on Sardinia, which, with nearly 

 45 per cent, under forest, is the best wooded part of 

 Italy, although the condition of the forest is here no 

 better than elsewhere. 



With the exception of the slopes of the Alps (2.5 

 million acres of spruce, fir, beech, larch), and the tops 

 of the Apennines and remote plateaus (4.5 million 

 acres), and of a few special places on which now and 

 then even magnificent remnants of virgin forest may 

 be found lack of transportation having preserved 

 them most of the area is occupied by miserable 

 brush forest, coppice or else open forest with scattered 

 trees among a shrub undergrowth of thorns, hazel and 

 chestnut (called macchia, i.e., chapparal), so that 

 most Italians have never seen a real forest. Never- 

 theless, Italy is by no means as treeless as this con- 

 dition of forest would imply, for trees (poplar, ash, 

 elm) are dotting the plains and slopes, planted for vine 

 supports and boundaries, unshapely through pollard- 

 ing and lopping the branches for firewood. Olive 

 and chestnut groves on the hills (of the former 2 

 million acres, of the latter over 400,000 acres planted 

 for the fruit), and 8.5 million acres in vineyards 

 add to the wooded appearance of the country and 

 to the wood supply. The annual product of fire- 



