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TIME EE 
taken up the question of afforestation or the planting of 
trees which in time will take the place of those cut down ; 
some countries, indeed, have adopted this practice for many 
years. France and Germany have for generations, and 
amid far-reaching political changes, steadily pursued an 
enlightened national policy in the care of their forests. 
France was the pioneer and has pursued the practice since 
1669. There is the well-known instance along the west 
coast between the Gironde and the Adour, known as 
the Landes, where M. Bremontier, a civil engineer, planted 
the Maritime pine about the year 1789. As the result 
of this planting not only were large areas of land which 
were being covered by the drifting sands of the Atlantic 
seaboard preserved and made valuable as pasturage for 
cattle, but there are now about 220,000 acres covered with 
valuable pine woods which yield a handsome return on 
the original expenditure. 
Switzerland has pursued this policy for 100 years, and 
to show the value of this management it may be stated 
that the city of Zurich owns 2,400 acres of the Sihlwald, 
which in the year 1889 yielded a return of £1 13s. per 
acre, or £4,000 for the whole property. Its working is so 
regulated that areas of equal productive capacity are 
covered by stocks of every age, from the seedling to the 
mature tree of ninety years. 
In 1895, 5,500,000 trees were planted in the south of 
Sweden, and 2,000 lbs. of fir seed sown. 
Although in 1875 a commission found that Norway had 
consumed 401,000,000 cubic feet of timber, whilst the re- 
production was only 298,000,000, leaving a shortage of 
108,000,000 cubic feet, yet it was not until 1893 that the 
matter of protecting her forests was taken up, and the 
present annual output exceeds the natural increase, so that 
the supply is not only decreasing, but the average size of 
