Forest Conditions. 145 
along the Adriatic with Dalmatia, Istria and Trieste, 
which, from ancient times under Venetian rule, bring 
with them the inheritance of a mismanaged limestone 
country, creating the problems of the “Karst” reforesta- 
tion which has baffled the economist and forester until 
the present time; the two new provinces east of this 
region, Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose rich forest areas 
have only lately begun to be treated under modern con- 
servative ideas; and finally Hungary with a great variety 
of conditions in itself. 
The large forest per cent. (over 32% of the land area) 
is due to the mountainous character of the country, the 
Alps occupying a large area on the west and southwest, 
the Carpathians stretching for 600 miles on the north- 
east, various mountain ranges encircling Bohemia, the 
Sudetes forming part of the northern frontier, and the 
Wiener Wald besides other lower ranges being distri- 
buted over the empire and bounding the fertile valleys 
of the Danube and its tributaries. At least 20 per cent. 
is unproductive. 
Hungary is mainly a fertile plain, traversed by the 
Danube and Theiss, an agricultural country, with the 
forest confined to the hilly portions to the mountain- 
ous southern provinces of Slavonia and Croatia and to 
the Carpathians, which bound it on the north and east. 
Nevertheless, while wood in the plain is scarce, the total 
forest area is but little less than that of Austria proper, 
namely, 23,000,000 acres (28%). Large areas of shift- 
ing sands, and along the Danube and Theiss rivers 
swamps, partly created by deforestation, are interspersed 
with the heavy black prairie and compact clay-soils. 
The climate in the northern portion of Austria proper 
