190 
bidden and Cleared land, unless used for other purposes, must 
be reforested. Pasturing is restricted where it would do harm. 
In the past thirty-five years the State has increased its forest 
holdings by 45 per cent, through the purchase and reforesting 
of wastes and sand dunes and by the settlement of disputed 
titles. The purchases amount to over 600,000 acres, for which 
an average price of $5.30 an acre was paid. 
Lumbering is carried on much as it is in the United States. 
The State, as a rule, sells stumpage, and the limber is re- 
moved by contractors. Management is by no means so de- 
tailed and intensive as in Germany or France. The trees which 
are to be cut are marked, but no attempt is ordinarily made 
to prepare complete working plans. Only a moderate amount 
of planting is done to secure the future crop, and natural 
reproduction is mainly relied upon. 
Forest fires continue to do great damage, especially in the 
northern part of the country. A forest patrol is doing effective 
work, however, in checking the spread of fires. 
DENMARK. 
Denmark has about 600,000 acres under forest, of which the 
State owns over 23 per cent., or 142,000 acres. About 75,000 
acres of wastes are 111 process of reforestation. 
The need of wiser forest use was felt in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and by 1781 the State forests were placed under admin- 
istration. But the clearing of the forest continued at such a 
rate that in 1805 it was provided that the still existing forests 
of beech and oak should be maintained forever. Further, pro- 
vision was made as to the selling of the peasants' farms, so that 
they should not be accumulated in large holdings upon which 
the peasants would have to depend for their wood. 
Since 1820 the forest area has been increasing. At present 
reforesting is adding to it very considerably. Nearly 200,000 
acres of heath have been planted in the last forty years. To 
this work of reclamation the State contributes $40,000 a year. 
In State forests, as well as in the communal forests and the 
farmers' woodlots, forestry is carefully and profitably prac- 
ticed. 
(To be continued.) 
BANANAS IN COSTA RICA. 
The United Fruit Co. of Boston has upwards of 150,000 acres 
planted in bananas in Costa Rica. To handle the produce of 
these immense fields more than 400 steamers laden with the fruit 
left Port Limon in 1906. Costa Rica is now the foremost banana- 
growing country in the world. 
