98 OF WOOD IN GENERAL 



forests in almost every department, exporting Oak and sending 

 Bordeaux Pine {Pinus Pinaster) as mine-props to our Welsh col- 

 lieries, France imports common building woods from Scandinavia, 

 Eussia, and America, as well as the more costly kinds used for 

 furniture, etc., her imports exceeding her exports to the value of 

 over five million sterling per annum. 



German Empire, etc. — Spain imports, but does not export 

 timber. Prussia has 23 per cent, of its area under forest, over 

 6 million acres, or 30 per cent, of the whole, being under Govern- 

 ment administration. The yield is about 47 cubic feet per acre per 

 annum, i.e. safely within the calculated annual increment of 

 50 cubic feet, the total expenditure about 1|- millions sterHng, and 

 the net surplus over a million, or about 3s. 6d. an acre for all ground 

 in use. The chief species are Kiefer {Pinus sylvestris), exported as 

 Dantzic or Riga Fir or Prussian Deal, and Fichte or Roth Tanne 

 {Picea excelsa), forming between them three-fourths of the whole 

 crop. Eiche {Quercus Rohur) is exported to England as Baltic 

 or East Country Oak, and the Silver Fir, Edeltanne or Weissfichte 

 {AUes pectindfa) abounds in the Vosges and occurs in Schleswig- 

 Holstein and Silesia. More than a quarter of the area of Bavaria 

 is under wood, and, though there is a large local demand for fuel, 

 the careful foresight of the administration is evidenced by the fact 

 that in 1885 a government forester was sent to study the timber- 

 trees of the United States, who frankly explained his mission 

 by saying, '' In fifty years you will have to import your timber, 

 and as you will probably have a preference for American kinds, we 

 shall begin to grow them now, so as to be ready to send them to 

 you at the proper time." Timber is the chief export of the country. 



Saxony has over a million acres of forest, one-third of which 

 belongs to the State, the annual cut being estimated at a million 

 cubic feet. The Saxon forests include Oak, Beech, Ash, Birch^ 

 and Alder, as well as Pine, Spruce, Silver Fir, and Larch. 



Wurtemberg has nearly 1| milHon acres, or over 30 per cent, 

 of its whole area under forest, comprising the Pine-wood districts 

 of the Black Forest and the hardwoods of the Swabian Alps. 

 Pine, Spruce, Silver Fir, and Oak are floated down the Rhine to 

 the Dutch shipbuilding yards, whilst Beech furnishes the chief fuel 

 of the country, and is used for ships' keels, carriage-building, and 

 chair-making, and Aspen is in demand for matches and paper-pulp. 



Hesse-Darmstadt, the Fir-trees from which are in special demand 

 in Holland, has one- third of its area under forest ; whilst Baden 

 has also over a million acres, or one-third of its area, so occupied. 



Austria-Hungary. — ^The forests of the Austrian Empire occupy 

 over 42J million acres, those of Austria being 30 per cent., those 



