25 : 
while owning but little over 4 per cent of the forest area, exercises 
supervision over the 66 per cent of communal forests. Private forests, 
when not classed as proteéfive, are only prohibited from being cleared. 
In Italy, where the government owns only 1.6 per cent of the forest 
area, a new law was passed in 1885 by which reforestation of the desert 
mountain lands is made obligatory, the government contributing three- 
fifths of the cost and expert advice, or else reserving the right to ex- 
propriate and reforest on its own account. 
The law is drawn in a liberal spirit toward the owners, but with full 
recognition of the need and justice of restricting the foolish and willful 
exercise of their property rights, where this is bound to injure the com- 
munity at large. 
In France 10 per cent of the forests is held by the government, and 
27 per cent owned by communities are under its control. Private 
. property is only under supervision where special reasous can be shown 
that indiscriminate cutting is dangerous to the community. 
In Spain, which has perhaps suffered more from the effects of forest 
destruction than any other country, the state owns only 4.5 per cent, 
but controls the communal forests, representing 80 per cent, to some 
extent. 
In the Scandinavian forests, 15 to 20 per cent of which are owned 
and managed by government, there is hardly any more forestry prac- 
ticed than in Maine, where some owners restrict the cutting of trees to 
certain sizes. 
The same may be said of Russia. The crown, however, owns about 
two-thirds of the forest and has begun some management. ‘I'he private 
owners are entirely unrestricted, and cut their timber imprudently 
and improvidently, without regard to reproduction, and, as far as 
methods of using their forest property are concerned, stand about on a 
level with the American timber-land owner. : 
England has practically no forests of extent, only 3 to 6 per cent 
covered by plantations. Its equable climate and configuration have 
not made this deficiency felt, but public interest has lately been directed 
to the profitableness of forest growing on waste places and more atten- 
tion is being paid to sylviculture. In India the government has estab- 
lighed a full forest administration, which nets annually several million 
dollars, 
ADMINISTRATIVE CONSIDERATIONS. 
In carrying on forest management on a large seale and over exten- 
Sive areas there is, as in every such business, need of a well-organized 
administration, which involves the organization of a service, the prepa- 
ration of working plans, determining the manner in which the crop is 
to be harvested and disposed of, the expenditures for desirable roads, 
and other improvements, etc. 
