lO FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Venice, while in her pride and glory as queen of the seas, also drew her 

 supply for ship building and pile foundations from this source, and what was 

 left was purchased and chopped down by the merchants of Holland and 

 England. 



When the timber was all cut down and nothing left but the roots there 

 was still hope that a new forest would have grown up out of the bare ground 

 during the course of centuries, but then the native inhabitants stepped in and 

 took possession and by pasturing their sheep and goats upon the treeless 

 plains and hillsides made all growth from the roots impossible, and they even 

 dug up the roots for firewood, and thus made a very clean and thorough job 

 of this barbarous devastation. 



The result in a climatic direction has, as a matter of course, been highly 

 disastrous. The same region which had been famous for its mild and tem- 

 perate climate has become changeable and unreliable, landslides and ava- 

 lanches have come and gone their unobstructed way, the mountain creeks 

 have become dry, and the whole face of the country has been changed from 

 a rich, fruitful, and salubrious climate to an arid, sterile plain, interspersed 

 with stony and parched hillsides, populated by meagre sheep and goats and 

 their equally meagre owners. 



The work of reclaiming these wastes is necessarily slow and expensive. 

 The government of Austria has, however, made laudable efforts in this direc- 

 tion. Central stations for the raising of young trees adapted to the climate 

 and soil have been established and millions upon millions of young trees have 

 been furnished gratis to the several communities for replanting. Wherever 

 the government met with indifference on the part of the population with ref- 

 erence to the replanting of forest special laws have been passed and tracts of 

 lands have been condemned for the public purpose aforesaid and the inhabi- 

 tants have been compelled by law to work in replanting trees for a certain 

 number of days or to contribute an equivalent in money at the outside figure 

 of 50 kreutzers for each day. Most of the communities, however, have of 

 late taken hold of this work with energy and much has been accomplished. 



Wherever communities possessed the right of grazing their sheep and 

 goats upon these treeless tracts subsidies have been granted to compensate 

 them for the loss, and sheep and goats have been banished from their grazing 

 ground, this being the first condition to a new growth from the old roots and 

 to the development of the young newly-planted trees. 



In replanting these waste places it has been found that the seeding of tree 

 seeds is entirely impracticable and without any hope of success. 



The hot winds deprive the earth of the moisture necessary to the sprout- 

 ing of the seeds, and if the seeds should send up small shoots these tender 

 plants succumb to the drouth. 



The most successful replanting in the long run is shown to be the plant- 

 ing of young trees from one to two years old, separately planted in holes one 

 foot square, one foot deep, and three to five feet Eipart. This mode of re- 

 planting is also claimed to be the cheapest. It is estimated that one man 



