Forest Conditions. - 173 
members corresponding to the House of Representatives, 
the Standesrath with 44 members, equivalent to the 
Senate, represent the interests of the whole federation. 
The administration of the cantons lies in the hands of 
the “great” and “small” councils with an executive min- 
istry of three members chosen for two years by the for- 
mer council. The administration of the Bund is in 
the hands of the Bundesrath of 7 members elected by 
the parliament, which also elects one of the members as 
president for one year. The Referendum, which, if 30,- 
000 voters demand it within 3 months, requires refer- 
ence of any law to the direct vote of the people is used 
as a check on legislation. 
Although the larger part of the population of 3 
million people is German, parts of Switzerland are 
French and other parts Italian. 
From this brief statement of the political develop- 
ment of the country it will appear that the development 
of forestry must also have varied. 
Topographic and soil conditions necessarily had their 
influence on this development also. In the plains, the 
plateau, and the hill country the distinction of forest 
and field as it now exists had been in general attained 
in the 15th century, while in the mountain country for- 
est destruction began only in the 18th century and con- 
tinued till the middle of the 19th century, stimulated 
by the development of the metal industry and the im- 
provement in means of communication. The clearings 
made here were turned into pasture and, being over- 
pastured, became waste lands. Thus owing to topo- 
graphic and soil conditions a very uneven distribution of 
forest has resulted and we find a variation in forest area 
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