94 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



the barren plains, with millions of young trees. Countless millions 

 of young trees have been furnished gratis to the inhabitants of these 

 desolate regions for planting, and experiment stations have been 

 established at all central points for the raising of trees adapted to the 

 climate and soil of those localities. When the people have been found 

 indifferent to their true interest in this regard, they have been required 

 by law to work a certain number of days each year in planting trees 

 on land condemned and taken for that purpose, or to contribute an 

 equivalent in money, to be used by the official foresters in the same 

 work. But to the credit of humanity in modern life, be it said, a 

 great many communities have taken hold of this work with zeal and 

 energy, and much has been done to reclaim waste land and cover it 

 again with trees of the best species. All this has a tendency to bring 

 into re-existence, as it were, land which has seen better days ; and 

 every acre of land thus recovered secures to mankind increased happi- 

 ness and sustenance upon the earth. It means new roads and cities 

 to build, new farms to cultivate, harbors and rivers to improve and fit 

 for navigation, schools to establish, and wood and timber to use in the 

 erection of new dwellings, and the enlargement of warmth and com- 

 fort in those dwellings. Man, and not nature, made this waste soil to 

 lie fallow for centuries, and now it is the duty of man to reclaim and 

 rejuvenate it by replanting it with forest trees, and thereby restoring it 

 to its primitive beauty and productiveness. 



Without giving in detail the forestry laws of the different European 

 nations, I will briefly state the general purport and scope of those laws 

 and the measures the governments adopt to secure their wise and faith- 

 ful execution. It is the aim of the governments to have about one- 

 fourth of the entire area of the country covered with forests. There 

 are three kinds of forests, — State, communal, and private ; but the 

 governments exercise full control over them all. 



Pasturage is not allowed in the State forests, but sometimes hogs 

 properly guarded are admitted for the purpose of destroying insects and 

 their eggs. Poor folks, living in the vicinity, are generally permitted 

 to gather and carry away for their own use, without charge, the dead 

 branches, and the brushwood which remains unused when timber is cut 

 for the market. They are also allowed to pick the berries and harvest 

 the mushrooms. The people at large are allowed to frequent the State 

 and communal forests, and to hold picnics therein, subject to the rules 

 and regulations prescribed by the proper authorities. At certain sea- 

 sons of the year portions of them are leased for hunting-grounds to 

 individuals or societies, who are required to pay a fair compensation 



