252 Philosophy of Botaijy. 



total area, and they have been owned all this time in about the 

 same proportions — namely, about one-third by the State, one- 

 half by private owners, the rest by villages and corporations. 



The policy of the State has been during all this time to in- 

 crease its holdings wherever practicable, and more than 

 $8,000,000 have been spent in the way of land purchases since 

 1830. But even with private owners a similar disposition 

 exists, and though the right to clear land is given wherever 

 this may be show'n to be fit for agricultural purposes, there has 

 been almost as much land restocked with w^oods by private 

 owners and villages as has been cleared, so that the total hold- 

 ings of private owners have not been reduced through clearing 

 by more than one-third pro mille. Of the 6.2 millions* acres oi 

 forest, about 46 per cent is stocked with spruce and fir, usually 

 harvested at an age of about one hundred and twenty years ; 

 30 per cent is pine (nearly all Scotch pine — a hard pine resem- 

 bling our red or Norway pine), largely used as a firewood, and 

 generally cut at an age of eighty years and less. The rest is 

 stocked with hardwoods, mostly beech, which is allowed to 

 grow to an age of about one hundred and twenty years ; some 

 white oak (Quercus pedunculata), part of which is managed 

 as tanbark coppice, being cut down every fifteen or twenty- 

 five years, and part is allowed to grow into larger timber, for 

 which about one hundred and eighty years are necessary in 

 this region. The yield of cut per acre is generally large. 

 Groves one hundred 3^ears old, cutting 10,000 cubic feet of tim- 

 ber per acre, are by no means rare in the forests of the foot- 

 hills, and even the poor rocky Alpine ranges are made to yield 

 during the same length of time from 3,000 to 4.000 cubic feet. 

 In the State forests about 61 cubic feet per acre grows, on an 

 average, every year over the entire area, so that they furnish 

 an annual cut of about 126,000,000 cubic feet of timber and 

 firewood. 



In the private forests the growth and consequent yield is 

 generally smaller, since less care is had and less skill displayed. 

 Nevertheless, according to a thorough examination made 

 about i860, the growth even in this private and village woods 

 amounted to about 54 cubic feet per acre and year. 



* Slate and private ownership. 



