84 



already mainly done and even forgotten in Alpine Italy, while its evils were just 

 I 'ginning to be sensibly felt in France when the claims of natural philosophy as 

 a liberal study were first acknowledged in modern Europe. The former political 

 condition of the Italian peninsula would have effectually prevented the adoption 

 ut! ;i -moral system of forest economy, however clearly the importance of a wise 

 administration of this great public interest might have been understood. The 

 woods which controlled and regulated the flow of the river-sources were very 

 often in one jurisdiction ; the plains to be irrigated or to be inundated by floods 

 and desolated by torrents in another. 



Action under a single government can alone render practicable the establish- 

 ment of such arrangements for the conservation and restoration of the forests, and 

 for the regulation of the flow of the waters as are necessary for the full develop- 

 ment of the yet unexhausted resources of that fairest of lands, and even for the 

 maintenance of the present condition of its physical geography. 



FORESTS OF GERMANY. 



Germany, including a considerable part of the Austrian Empire, from 

 character of surface and climate, and from the attention which has long been 

 paid in all the German States to sylviculture and forestry, is in a far better 

 condition in this respect than its more southern neighbors ; and though in the 

 Alpine Provinces of Bavaria and Austria the same improvidence which marks 

 the rural economy of the corresponding districts of Switzerland, Italy, and 

 France has produced effects hardly less disastrous, yet, as a whole, the German 

 States must be considered as in this respect the model countries of Europe. 

 Not only is the forest area in general maintained without diminution, but 

 new woods are planted where they are specially needed, and though the slow 

 growth of forest trees in those climates reduces the direct pecuniary returns 

 of woodlands to a minimum, the governments wisely persevere in encouraging 

 this industry. The exportation of sawn lumber from Trieste is large, and in 

 fact the Turkish and Egyptian markets are in great part supplied from this 

 source. 



As an instance of the scarcity of fuel in some parts of Bavaria, where, not long 

 since, wood abounded, the fact may be mentioned that the water of salt springs is, 

 in some instances, conveyed to the distance of sixty miles, in iron pipes, to 

 reach a supply of fuel for boiling it down. 



The Austrian Government has made energetic efforts for the propagation 

 of forests in Tyrol and on the desolate wastes of the Karst. In 1866 upwards 

 of 400,000 trees had been planted on the Karst, and great quantities of seed 

 sown. The results of this important experiment are said to be encouraging, 

 (Chronique Forestiere in the Revue des Eaux et Forets, Feb. 1870.} Later 

 accounts .state that the Government nurseries of the Karst supplied between 

 1869 and 1872, 20,000,000 young forest trees for planting, and that of 70,000 ash 

 trees planted in the Karst scarcely one failed to grow.* 



FORESTS OF RUSSIA. 



Russia, which we habitually consider as substantially a forest country, which 

 has in fact a large proportion of woodland, is beginning to suffer seriously for 

 want of wood. Jourdier observes : " Instead of a vast territory with immense 

 forests, which we expect to meet, one sees only scattered groves thinned by the 



* For information respecting the forests of Germany, as well as other European countries, see the 

 very valuable Manuale d'Arte Forestale of Siemoni, 2d. edizione, Firenze, 1872. 



