24 TIMBER 



taken up the question of afforestation or the planting of 

 trees which in time will take the place of those cut down ; 

 some countries, indeed, have adopted this practice for many 

 years. France and Germany have for generations, and 

 amid far-reaching political changes, steadily pursued an 

 enlightened national policy in the care of their forests. 

 France was the pioneer and has pursued the practice since 

 1669. There is the well-known instance along the west 

 coast between the Gironde and the Adour, known as 

 the Landes, where M. Bremontier, a civil engineer, planted 

 the Maritime pine about the year 1789. As the result 

 of this planting not only were large areas of land which 

 were being covered by the drifting sands of the Atlantic 

 seaboard preserved and made valuable as pasturage for 

 cattle, but there are now about 220,000 acres covered with 

 valuable pine woods which yield a handsome return on 

 the original expenditure. 



Switzerland has pursued this policy for 100 years, and 

 to show the value of this management it may be stated 

 that the city of Zurich owns 2,400 acres of the Sihlwald, 

 which in the year 1889 yielded a return of ^1 13s. per 

 acre, or ^4,000 for the whole property. Its working is so 

 regulated that areas of equal productive capacity are 

 covered by stocks of every age, from the seedling to the 

 mature tree of ninety years. 



In 1895, 5,500,000 trees were planted in the south of 

 Sweden, and 2,000 Ibs. of fir seed sown. 



Although in 1875 a commission found that Norway had 

 consumed 401,000,000 cubic feet of timber, whilst the re- . 

 production was only 293,000,000, leaving a shortage of 

 108,000,000 cubic feet, yet it was not until 1893 that the 

 matter of protecting her forests was taken up, and the 

 present annual output exceeds the natural increase, so that 

 the supply is not only decreasing, but the average size of 



