3l6 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



Besides, all states have lately inaugurated sys- 

 terns of forest experiment stations ; and forestry 

 associations, not of propagandists but of practition- 

 ers, abound. As a result of all this activity in for- 

 estry science and practice, not less than twenty 

 forestry journals in the German language exist, 

 besides many official and association reports and 

 a most prolific book literature. 



Germany, as constituted at present, has an area 

 of 133,000,000 acres — about one-fifteenth of our 

 country, — a population of about 47,000,000, or less 

 than 3 acres per capita, or only one-tenth of our 

 per capita average. Its forests cover 34,700,000 

 acres, or 26 per cent of the entire land surface. 

 A large portion of the forests cover the poorer, 

 chiefly sandy, soils of the North German plains, 

 or occupy the rough, hilly, and steeper mountain 

 lands of the numerous smaller mountain systems, 

 and a small portion of the northern slopes of the 

 Alps. They are distributed rather evenly over 

 the entire empire. Prussia, with 66 per cent of 

 the entire land area, and also of the entire forest 

 area, possesses 23.5 per cent of forest land, while 

 the rest of the larger states have each over 30 

 per cent, except small, industrious Saxony, which 

 lies intermediate, with 27 per cent of forest cover. 



In spite of the care bestowed upon the manage- 

 ment of this resource, which is constantly yielding 

 larger returns as the properties get into regular 

 working order, — the output now is probably 1500 



