February, 1909.]/ 



loi 



Timbers. 



on the lauds of the Karst, is carried on 

 uuder the direction of the "protective 

 service." For the regulation of the 

 lower rivers $1,350,000 was appropriated 

 at the same time, and of this sum $400,000 

 has been successfully expended on re- 

 forestation. 



Hungary. 

 Hungary has 23,000,000 acres of forest' 

 of which the State owns 16 per cent. ; 

 corporations, 20 per cent.; churches 

 cloisters, and other institutions, 75 per 

 cent, ; and private persons the remain- 

 der. From $10,000,000 to §12,000,000 worth 

 of wood is aunually exported. 



About half of all the Hungarian 

 forests are under working plans, by 

 which the cut is regulated so as to 

 provide for a sustained yield, and the 

 present annual cut of 1,000,000,000 cubic 

 feet is believed to be considerably less 

 than the wood actually produced. The 

 State forests yield $600,000 net annual 

 revenue. 



The management of all co-operation 

 and protection forests has been super- 

 vised by the Government sinc< j 1879, 

 and all so-called " absolute forest laiid," 

 in other words, land unfit for farming, 

 must be reforested within six years 

 after it is cleared. Three-fourths of all 

 the forest land of Hungary, including 

 private as well as public forests, falls 

 under the classification of absolute 

 forest land. Moreover, all mountain 

 forests are required to be managed 

 under State working plans. Two-thirds 

 of all the Hungarian forests are brought 

 under this sort of State supervision. 

 Forest planting is encouraged by State 

 nurseries, at which 10,000,000 seedlings 

 are raised every year for free distri- 

 bution and by bounties paid for forest 

 plantation established on private waste 

 lands. 



Hungary has some 600 square miles of 

 shifting sands and waste lands, like 

 those of the Landes of France. The 

 work of reclaiming these was planned 

 by the law of 1788. Actual plauting was 

 begun in 1817. By 1869, 20,000 acres had 

 been forested, and parts of the planta- 

 tions were beginning to yield a profit. 

 The work of reforesting is constantly 

 going on. 



Norway, Sweeden and Denmark. 

 Norway. 



Only 21 per cent., or 20,000,000 acres of 

 Norway is in forest. The State owns 

 less than 2,000,000 acres of this. Of the 

 forest region one-half has to import 

 timber, one-fourth has sufficient for its 

 needs, and one-fourth is able to export 

 over 1,000,000 tons, valued at $18,000,000 a 

 19 



year. Nearly two-thirds of the exports 

 go to England, and most of the rest is 

 divided up between Belgium, Australia, 

 France, Holland, Germany, and Den- 

 mark. The total annual cut, one-fifth 

 of which is exported, is about 500,000,000 

 cubic feet. It exceeds by 1,500,000 cubic 

 feet the amount of wood grown by all 

 the forest in the same time. In other 

 words, the cut is far too heavy to last, 

 so that a reduction of wood exports is 

 inevitable. 



Forestry ie on a low level. The various 

 provisions for the better use and pro- 

 tection of the forests which began three 

 hundred years ago, have been of too 

 half-hearted a nature to meet the situ- 

 ation. There is a forest service, but the 

 officers are few and underpaid, and the 

 districts under their care— sometimes 

 several million acres to each — are far 

 too large for effective work. Moreover, 

 there are difficulties over the forest 

 rights which were earlier granted to 

 encourage the development of the 

 country, but which are now greatly in 

 the way of establishing property rights 

 and organizing an administration. 



Since 1860 the State has been buying 

 cut-over lands in order to plant them to 

 forest where forest protection is needed, 

 and from $15,000 to $20,000 a year has 

 been spent in this way during recent 

 years. 



The communal forests are supervised 

 by the Government, and are usually 

 managed by the foresters with a view 

 simply to supplying local needs. Sale 

 outside the parishes are permitted only 

 where there is more than enough for 

 these needs. 



Sweden. 



Sweden has nearly 50,000,000 acres of 

 forest, covering nearly 50 per cent, of 

 the total land area. Since the English 

 import duties were abolished in 1866, 

 the wood exports from Sweden have 

 steadily increased, till now Sweden 

 stands next to Russia, the world leader, 

 in wood exports with $51,000,000 worth 

 a year, representing nearly 4,500,000 tons. 

 England takes half of this, followed by 

 France, Denmark, Germany, Holland, 

 Cape Colony, Australia, and South 

 America. The total cut from the forest 

 ii estimated to be near 1,000 million cubic 

 feet. 



The State owns about 13,500,000 acres, 

 or 32-2 per cent., and controls 4,000,000 

 .\cres more. The State lands are, in the 

 main, of lesser commercial value, and 

 this fact, together with the existence 

 of logging rights granted in the past, 

 keeps the net income for the present 

 down to 12 cents an acre, Nevertheless, 



