REPORT ON FORESTS. 297 



M. Houba says, however, " that one must not expect too much 

 of plantings on waste-land, and that the revenues from the poor- 

 lands of the Campine and Ardennes are equal to five per cent, 

 on the capital invested." (If American capitalists could make 

 sure of five per cent, there would be large investments in forest 

 land.) 



Heathlands, which have not been exhausted by the removal 

 of the humus, have produced satisfactory forests. " Nothing is- 

 sadder," says Verstappen, "than to pass over certain wooded 

 zones of the Campine, to-day ofiFering a spectacle of decay which 

 seems without a remedy. Where thirty years ago one saw 

 superb pine groves yielding as much as the best wheat-lands of 

 Hesbaye, now one sees only rare groves of third and fourth 

 grade, while the greater part of the surface is covered with a 

 growth not exceeding three to five meters in height." Levasseur 

 says that a good plantation of pine properly managed, well 

 located, should yield, at the end of eighty years, 27,175 francs 

 per hectare. That is, according to our system of measurement, 

 $2,174 per acre, or $27.17 per acre per year! Prof Smets esti- 

 mates a yield of from 1,500 to 4,000 francs per hectare in a 

 period of 30 to 40 years for the Belgian Campine. That is 

 about a yield of $4 per year per acre for this poor heathland ! 

 If these figures are correct, the wonder is why every inch of that 

 land has not been reclaimed. 



The Scotch-pine will grow under a great variety of condi- 

 tions. It is not very sensitive to frost and accommodates 

 itself to low and damp places. It is a tree of the vast plains with 

 silicious bottom and deep soil. It is a species easy to satisfy and 

 has been successfully transported to many countries into many 

 soils. It is probably the most widely spread of all the pines. It 

 is like the red-cedar of America in respect to endurance, grow- 

 ing in wet and dry locations, in hot and cold, on mountains and 

 in the lowlands. Very rarely, however, does it reproduce itself 

 naturally. 



Here and there, at a certain depth, a bed of impermeable clay 

 or heath-humus buried under eolian sand arrests the growth of 

 the trees. These beds do not exist everywhere and their bad 

 effects may be overcome by thoroughly working and softening- 

 the soil. This all tends to prolong the life and vigor of the tree 



