Philosophy of Botany. 253 



With increased care the State forests, of which not over 5 

 per cent is unproductive as rocky wastes, roads, etc.. have been 

 made to yield more wood and a greater money return. Thus : 



In 1829 the cut was 35 cubic feet of wood (from all growth 

 measuring over five inches in diameter) ; in 1850 the cut was 

 44 cubic feet ; in i860 the cut was 48 cubic feet ; and in 1866 the 

 cut per acre had increased to 60 cubic feet. 



While in 1850 fully 84 per cent of the cut was still firewood, 

 this inferior class formed only 67 per cent in 1880, and this 

 proportion is still changing in favor of bole-size material, as 

 the average age and size of the timber increases, being nearly 

 half and half in 1896. 



The money returns of Bavarian State forests have not been 

 so great as those of the forests of Saxony and Wlirttemberg. 

 This is partly due to a prevalence of mountain lands, which 

 reduce the yield, increase the cost of all operations, and partly 

 also to a less intensive management. Nevertheless, improve- 

 ments in methods have led to fully as great an advance in the 

 net revenue here as in the neighboring States, so that the net 

 income, which was only $1 per acre and year in 1850, is now 

 ^1.92, or nearly double that amount. 



In this way the little State of Bavaria has a net income from 

 its forest i)ropert_\ alone — 2,091,930 acres — of nearly four mil- 

 lion dollars per year, after paying out in wages for supervision, 

 logging, planting, etc., a like amount, the net revenue present- 

 ing in 1896 just 50 per cent of the gross income. 



Considering the many difficulties of stocking rough Alpine 

 and other mountain lands with forests, it is noteworthy that of 

 the total expenses only 8 per cent, or about 10 cents per acre 

 and year, is devoted to that sylvicultural part of the work — i. e., 

 to planting, sowing, gathering seed, nursery work, etc. ; while 

 50 per cent is paid out for supervision, and 50 per cent for 

 cutting and logging. 



It is also of interest in this connection to note that it was 

 not by a shortsighted, stingy policy of retrenchment in ex- 

 penses, but by a liberal policy that the forests have been made 

 to furnish a steady and cheap supply of timber to hundreds of 

 mills, cheap firewood to the whole people, and a net income 

 which, if regarded as an interest on the value of the forest 



