t 
Greece. Q77 
GREECE. 
1. Forest Conditions. 
Although certain districts, like Attica, were already 
practically denuded in Plato’s time, there is little doubt 
that originally the whole of Greece with small exceptions 
was a continuous forest. The destruction of the forest, 
protected by thousands of gods and nymphs in holy 
groves, proceeded slowly under the regime of the ancient 
Greeks, until the fanaticism of the Christian religion led 
to a war against these pagan strongholds, and the holy 
groves were reduced by axe and fire. Turkish misrule, 
for centuries, overtaxation, reckless cutting, extensive 
herding of goats and sheep, and fires have reduced the 
forest area until now it occupies only 12 or 14 per cent. 
of the land area (25,000 square miles). In 1854, a 
survey developed about 2 million acres of woodlands 
(probably an excessive figure) for the now 2.5 million 
people, while 67 per cent. of the surface is a useless 
waste, and only 20 per cent. under cultivation, so that 
the general aspect of the country is desolate. The many 
islands are entirely deforested, and so are the seashores. 
“Where in olden times dense shady poplars stood, now 
only infertile sand and dreary rock waste remain.” 
The forest in northern and middle Greece is confined 
to the two mountain ranges which run parallel, north and 
south, with Mt. Olympus (nearly 9,000 feet) and Mt. 
Pindus (6,000 feet) the highest elevations. The large 
, plains of Thessaly and Boeotia are forestless. So is the 
Dr. CuLoros, Waldverhaltnisse Griechenlands. , Thesis for the Doctorate at 
Munich, 1884. 45 pp. 
ANDERLIND, Mittheilungen iiber die Waldverhiltnisse Griechenlands, Allge- 
meine Forst-und Jagdzeitung. 1884. 
