WOOD SUPPLY OF FRANCE, GERMANY, ETC. 113 



Welsh collieries, France imports common building woods as well 

 as the more costly kinds used for furniture, etc., her imports 

 exceeding her exports to the value of over five million sterling 

 per annum. 



German Empire, etc. Spain imports, but does not export 



timber. Prussia has 23 per cent, of its area under forest, over 6 



million acres, or 30 per cent, of the whole, being under government 



administration. The yield is about 47 cubic feet per acre per 



annum, i.e. safely within the calculated annual increment of 50 



cubic feet, the total expenditure about 1J millions sterling, and 



the net surplus over a million, or about 3s. 6d. an acre for all 



ground in use. The chief species are Kiefer (Pinus sylvdstris), 



exported as Dantzic or Riga Fir or Prussian Deal, and Fichte or 



Roth Tanne (Picea excelsa), forming between them three fourths 



of the whole crop. Eiche (Quc'rcus Eobvr) is exported to England 



as Baltic or East Country Oak, and the Silver Fir, Edeltanne or 



Weissfichte (Abies pectmdfa) abounds in the Vosges and occurs in 



Schleswig-Holstein and Silesia. More than a quarter of the area 



of Bavaria is under wood, and, though there is a large local 



demand for fuel, the careful foresight of the administration is 



evidenced by the fact that in 1885 a government forester was 



sent to study the timber-trees of the United States, who frankly 



explained his mission by saying, " In fifty years you will have to 



import your timber, and as you will probably have a preference 



for American kinds, we shall begin to grow them now, so as to be 



ready to send them to you at the proper time." Timber is the 



chief export of the country. 



Saxony has over a million acres of forest, one-third of which 

 belongs to the State, the annual cut, estimated at a million cubic 

 feet, being much less than it might be. The Saxon forests 

 include Oak, Beech, Ash, Birch, and Alder, as well as Pine, 

 Spruce, Silver Fir, and Larch. 



Wurtemberg has nearly 1 J million acres, or over 30 per cent, 

 of its whole area, under forest, comprising the Pine-wood districts 

 of the Black Forest and the hardwoods of the Swabian Alps. 

 Pine, Spruce, Silver Fir, and Oak are floated down the Rhine to 



H 



