Fordun

FORESTS, FOREST ADMINISTRATION. A forest is a tract of country covered with trees, of one or several species, or with trees and underwood. Forests are of the greatest importance in the general economy of the globe, influencing the humidity of the air and the soil, mitigating the extremes of heat and cold, affording shelter to man and beast, and enriching the soil on which they grow. Trees supply timber and fuel to man, and furnish him w ith a vast variety of economical products, such as gums, drugs, dyes, and articles of food. The management of large areas of natural or planted wood-lands is called

Forestry or Sylviculture. For the culture and uses of individual trees, see the separate articles, such as Birch, Elm, Fir, Oak, <tc.; and for ornamental belts, avenues, &c., the reader is referred to Arboriculture.

Historical records give us reason to believe that the habitable earth was generally covered with forest growth before it became the abode of man, and additional proof of this is found in the extensive remains of ancient trees. The geological record may also be referred to, as evidencing by its coal-fields the extensive breadths once covered by the richest vegetation.

The arboreous vegetation of the earth is remarkable for its great variety: many countries are rich in pines, others in oaks; Australia in Eucalyptus or gum trees, India in teak, California in Wellingtonia or Sequoia, and Brazil in palms. Trees, like other plants, require different degrees of heat, light, moisture, and elevation above the sea for their vigorous development, and hence various countries have their characteristic forests. The birches and pines of the North make way in the temperate zone for oaks and beeches, and in the tropics for palms and other heat-loving trees. The same trees seem to require similar climates, but the same climates do not always produce the same plants. The mountains of South India and Ceylon closely resemble the regions where the cinchona forests occur, but the genus is wanting in Asia. Again the teak is unknown in America, although parts of Brazil resemble its home in Malabar. These anomalies are explained perhaps mainly by the primitive distribution of the plants (see Distribution). It is also remarkable that some forests consist solely of one particular tree (on the Continent technically called “pure forest,” in contradistinction to mixed forests), such as the birch in Lapland, the deodar in the Himalaya, the Abies canadensis and Pinus Strobus in North America. The European forests, on the contrary, are generally composed of coniferous trees mingled with oak, elm, ash, beech, poplar, willow, alder, birch, and lime, interspersed with hornbeam, and various species of Pyrus and Prunus, the underwood being hazel, elder, buckthorn, viburnum, roses, &c. The American forests contain a still greater variety of species, a fact strikingly illustrated by Sir J. D. Hooker, in speaking of a patch of native forest a few miles from St Louis on the Missouri :—“In little more than half an hour, and less than a mile’s walk, I saw forty kinds of timber trees, including eleven of oak, two of maple, two of elm, three of ash, two of walnut, six of hickory, three of willow, and one each of plane, lime, hornbeam, hop-hornbeam, laurus, diospyros, poplar, birch, mulberry, and horse-chestnut, together with about half that number of shrubs.”

Natural forests may be divided into several classes, and in Kurz’s forest flora of British Burmah the classification adopted is as follows :— [table]

The following table, calculated by Rentzsch (Der Wald), from statistics obtained prior to 1862, shows the proportion of woodland in different European countries, as estimated at that date :— [table]

Siemoni gave in 1872 the proportion in Turkey at 24 per cent, and in United Italy 8 ’ 70 per cent For comparison, we quote from the most recent official abstract the Population, Area, and Acreage under Wood in the United Kingdom and various foreign countries, according to returns furnished by the agricultural and statistical departments of the respective countries. [table] [table] [table]

The discrepancies observable in these tables are in some cases apparent; thus the latest returns from Russia, Sweden, Norway, <fcc., are exclusive of sheets of water, whereas in the same returns the area of France, Italy, and Switzerland includes the lakes and rivers. Great Britain also now includes the Isle of Man and Channel Islands. In other cases the discrepancies are real, arising from the greater accuracy of information which has been collected through Government organizations, which did not exist when the estimate of Rentzsch was made. An entire comparison is unattainable, but it will be observed that the largest proportion of woodland is in Russia, Sweden, Germany, and Austria. The lowest occurs in Britain, Denmark, Holland, Spain, and Portugal

The physical history of every country proves incontestably that a moderate extent of forest promotes in a high degree both its agricultural and its manufacturing interests, as well as the productive resources of the country at large; and the beneficial influence of forests in a physical, economical, and hygienic aspect is now receiving more of the attention its importance deserves. The countries bordering the Mediterranean—Spain, France, Italy, and Turkey—have all suffered in a marked degree from the reckless and wholesale destruction of tho woods which covered the mountain slopes, and many springs which formerly existed under the shelter of the forest have now wholly disappeared. Though the insular position and moist climate of the British Isles save them from suffering from the want of forest in an equal degree with Continental nations, the Anglo-Saxon race has been slow to apprehend the value of the forests with which nature has so liberally clothed the earth, and the history of North America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand bears testimony to the same improvidence and need of consideration. There can be no doubt that one of the causes of the terrible famines in India and China is the unwise denudation of mountain slopes, where the forests formerly absorbed a large portion of the rainfall which now quickly runs off to the sea (see Climate). No point has been more clearly established than the salubrious and fertilizing effect of forest clothing in the climate of India. It has been the subject of much inquiry, and has been affirmed and demonstrated in reports from many districts.

We propose in this article to indicate briefly the principal wooded tracts of the earth, so far as known, and to describe the systems of conservancy adopted or the preliminary measures taken for the better management of state forests. Timber trees and forest produce will be briefly enumerated, but for the distinctive flora the reader is referred to the separate article on each country.

Forest science constitutes a separate branch of education in various countries of Europe. The first technical instruction was given in the Hartz forest, and Germany has taken the lead in developing a wise forest administration. France, Italy, Sweden, and Russia have successively established forest academies, and now the conservation of woodland occupies the legislature of almost all civilized lands.

The general systems of forest management in Britain and on the Continent are essentially different. Beautiful enclosures and plantations are seen in almost every part of England and Scotland. With the exception, however, of coppice wood and a limited extent of natural forest in the Highlands of Scotland, the system generally followed is to cut down the mature crop and to plant again. But on the Continent natural reproduction is the rule, not of wood coppice only, but also of high forest. In France the term of maturity for cutting a forest is determined with great care by a committee of skilled officers, and is usually divided into periods of so many years each; the term for an oak forest, for example, say 1Õ0 years, is divided into five periods of thirty years. Each series of years represents so many blocks or portions of forest, and the yearly cuttings are arranged so as to cover a certain extent of ground, and when one block has been felled another reaches maturity. France has a state department for the administration of the forests, and a very detailed code of forest laws (Code Forestier). The relation of woods to the regular drainage of the soil, and especially to the permanence of the configuration of the terrestrial surface has been thoroughly investigated. The methods of resisting the encroachment of sands or dunes have also received special attention. In Germany forestry is eagerly followed as a profession, and forest academies are numerous and well organized. The examination of candidates is very strict, and the result of the system has been most beneficial. In forest science Germany is far advanced, and the literature is specially rich. Every tract is carefully surveyed and treated on a working plan made with great exactness as to actual details and expected growth; care is always taken that in high forest there is a good stock of self-sown trees before the old crop is entirely removed. Systematic observation and experiments are made as to the rate of growth, and the best soil for each description of tree.

In Italy, where the French and German systems have been tested, the principles of sylviculture adopted by Hartig, Cotta, &c., are not always applicable in the drier climate of the south. On the arid slopes of the Apennines pasture is more profitable, and there is as yet little sympathy with skilled conservation of woods Europe. Great Britain and Ireland.— The British Isles were formerly much more extensively wooded than at present. The rapid increase of population has led to the disafforesting of woodland; the climate requires the maintenance of household fires during a great part of the year, and there has been an increasing demand for arable land; these along with the extension of manufacturing industries have been the chief causes of the diminution of wood. The proportion of forest is now very small, and yields but a fraction of the required annual supply of timber which is imported with facility from America, northern Europe, and the numerous British colonies.

Owing to the nature of the climate of the British Islands, with its abundance of atmospheric moisture and freedom from such extremes of heat and cold as are prevalent in continental Europe, a great variety of trees are successfully cultivated. In England and Ireland oak and beech are on the whole the most plentiful trees in the low and fertile parts; in the south of Scotland the beech and ash are perhaps most common, while the Scotch fir and birch are characteristic of the arboreous vegetation in the Highlands. Although few extensive forests now exist, woods of small area, belts of planting, clumps of trees, coppice, and hedgerows are generally distributed over the country, constituting a mass of wood of considerable importance, giving a clothed appearance in many parts, and affording illustrations of skilled arboriculture not to be found in any other country.

The principal state forests in England are Windsor Park, 14,000 acres, the New Forest, &c., in Hampshire, 76,000 acres, and the Dean Forest in Gloucestershire, 22,500 acres. The total extent of crown forests is about 125,000 acres, and the timber growing upon them is valued at between two and three millions of pounds. A large proportion of the crown forests, having been formed with the object of supplying timber for the navy, consists of fine oak, These wooded tracts are under careful management. The total receipts from the royal forests exclusive of Windsor amounted in 1876-77 to £33,129. The largest forests in Scotland are in Perthshire, Inverness-shire, and Aberdeenshire. Of these the most notable are the earl of Mansfield’s near Scone (8000 acres), the duke of AtholΓs larch plantations near Dunkeld (10,000 acres), and in Strathspey a large extent of Scotch fir, partly native, partly planted, belonging to the earl of Seafield. The last-named forest has been regularly planted in such a gradation as to cut 1000 acres annually on a rotation of sixty years. In the forests of Mar and Invercauld, the native pine attains a very great size, and there are also large tracts of indigenous birch in various districts. The total area under wood in Scotland is less than it was in 1812 by 200,000 acres. Ireland was at one time richly clothed with wood; this is proved by the abundant remains of fallen trees in the bogs which still occupy a large surface of the island. In addition to the causes above alluded to as tending to disafforest England, the long unsettled state of the country also conduced to the diminishing of the woodlands. At present indigenous timber is exceedingly scarce, the proportion of woodland being only 1’62. The abundance of peat compensates in some measure for the want of wood as fuel.

The following acreages of land and woodland in the United Kingdom are taken from the agricultural returns of 1877 :— [table]

in England, the woods, except the crown forests, being generally on a small scale and private property, there has been no legislative interference with their management. No uniform system of education has been adopted, and a school of forestry is much required. Meanwhile the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland grants certificates for proficiency in the theory and practice of forestry tested by examination. Excellent instruction in surveying, botany, chemistry, geology, and collateral subjects is given in Edinburgh, at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, at Glasnevin, Dublin, and in other places.

Norway and Sweden.— The peninsula formed by the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden is abundantly wooded. The principal trees are Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), spruce fir (Abies excelsa), and birch (Betula alba). These grow to a large size, and the birch extends almost as far as the North Cape, only giving place at high altitudes to low, bushy willows. In the southern districts only is there any variety of hardwood. The forests are principally situated in the east of Norway. The western parts have been denuded, and the wants of the sea-coast are supplied from the inland districts.

Of the vast area of waste land returned as forest in Norway, about one-ninth belongs to the state or to various state institutions. In the greater part of the forests the population have a long established right for grazing, timber, and firewood; and even in tracts in which landowners or the state have a part ownership, the rights of the population, if they have any, take precedence of all other claims. Communal forests are managed by men chosen from among those who jointly own them. From the 16th century various laws attempted to regulate the private forests, but these were found vexatious, and were repealed in 1836. The forest department for the control of state forests consists of 27 officers, with a very large staff of men employed in felling and timber transport. The export of timber from Norway is chiefly from the Skeen Fiord, and the various ports between Cape Lindesnaes and the Swedish border. The annual export amounts to about 80,000,000 cubic feet, more than half being sent to Great Britain and Ireland, while the average annual value is estimated at £2,400,000. Some idea of the great timber resources of Norway may also be gathered from the fact that in the census of 1865 there were 4937 men entered as working in the forests, and 17,549 described themselves as employed in woodwork, saw-mills, tar-preparing, &c. In a Norwegian administration report it is stated that “the present destruction of forests has reached the limit of the permissible, probably even exceeded it.”

Of the 100,500,000 acres in the kingdom of Sweden, 88,800,000 were officially reported in 1875 as forest waste land, 12 millions being public, and 76 millions private property. Only about half of this, however, is really covered with wood, including plantations formed in recent years. Of the public foιests only 4 million acres are under direct state management; about an equal aiea remains to be demarcated, while the rest belongs to other public insti tutions, is attached to state residences, or is temporarily alienated. The trees in Sweden are the same as those of Norway, but oak, elm, lime, alder, and beech grow more extensively in the south. Birch-wood is chiefly used as fuel, and the wood of the aspen is largely employed in the manufacture of matches.

Forest management in Sweden is in course of progressive development, and the administration is conducted with energy. The department consists of a director and 700 men of different administrative and executive grades. Much labour is required to bring the timber to market from remote forests in the western part of the kingdom; in winter sledges on ice and snow are used for transport, and in floating down the rivers logs often take four and five years to reach the timber depot. Besides the control of the state and other public forests, the department is entrusted with the surveillance of private forests.

In 1875 the total revenue of the state forests was £56,807. The actual expenditure was £35,787. The profits were therefore £21,020. The shipments of timber are annually increasing, and were in 1874 325,061 loads, and 704,741 standards. A Government forest school at Stockholm, which in 1875 had 13 students, supplies recruits for the higher grades of forest service, while there are six provincial schools for training men for the subordinate posts. Besides these, there is a private forest school receiving a grant in aid from Government.

Denmark is one of the most poorly wooded countries in Europe, the percentage of woodland being now only 4'25 of the whole area. This small proportion is caused chiefly by the nakedness of the western part of Jutland, where the west winds have seconded the action of man in destroying the forests. Much of the wood which at one time covered nearly the whole of Denmark having been cut down, to make way for agriculture, and to supply fuel and timber, a vast area thus bared has become a sandy heathy desert. The chief indigenous trees of Denmark are the spruce and Scotch fir, birch, and aspen. The oak also forms valuable forests on the islands of Falster and Lolland. Beech, which was later introduced, has flourished so well as almost to monopolize the forest ground, and special protection is afforded to the oak, while a variety of conifers are being introduced as rivals to the beech; in a few places only, such as Normandy and the Carpathian mountains, are beech forests so luxuriant as in Denmark. Although laws to check the destruction of forests were enacted in the 15th, lβth, and 17th centuries, they were treated as a dead letter; it is only since 1805 that effective measures have been taken to preserve the remains of Danish woodland and to create new plantations. A state forest department permits only small portions of old forests to be cleared at a time, and insists on the simultaneous planting of an equal area. The department also exercises a controlling supervision on private forests, forming plantations where necessary on private Restates at the expense of the owner. About one-fifth of the entire area of Denmark may be described as lying waste; some of this is unfit for the growth of trees, hut already extensive plantations have been formed, on the heaths and dunes of West Jutland, of hardy trees such as Pinus montana, Abies alba, A. excelsa, and A. pectinata. In some instances, the state purchases tracts of heath on which to form plantations, and in others grants aid to private enterprise.

The Danish forest school is at Copenhagen, and forms a branch of an agricultural college. Admittance is obtained after passing an examination similar to that required for matriculation at the university. The forest education requires four examinations, and the subjects comprised are—(1) mathematics, geology, natural philosophy, chemistry, zoology, botany, and drawing; (2) practical work, to acquire a knowledge of which the student generally arranges to serve for a year or two under a forest officer; (3) an oral examination in the principles of forestry, surveying, geology, hydrology, forest zoology, and botany; and (4) these principles applied practically, a tract of forest above 200 acres to be surveyed, and levels found for a line of 3000 or 4000 feet. The course of study extends from four to six years; the student then becomes a “forest candidate,” and may look for Government employment.

Holland, on account of its formation and climate, possesses no indigenous forests. The country is so intersected by water that it is extremely subject to fogs, and being little above the sea level it is greatly exposed to winds, those from the north-west especially being prejudicial to tree growth, while the marshy ground prevents the roots from penetrating far into the soil. There is, however, along the roads and embankments, a considerable amount of timber, consisting of beech, poplar, willow, and ash, which attain a large size, and in the management of such avenues the Dutch excel. Elms also thrive on the embankments. The extensive dunes, amounting to 140,000 acres, are planted chiefly with hardy conifers (Marsh).

Belgium.— The physical features of Belgium are, except in the northern part, very different from those of Holland. The chief forests are in the districts of Brabant and Flanders, and the old forest of Ardennes still extends along the south-eastern frontier. According to Siemoni, in 1872 Belgium had 18 per cent, of her soil covered with wood. Recent returns give the area of state forest in Belgium as nearly 75,000 acres, and of communal forests 300,000 acres, all being under Government control.

Germany is in general well wooded, the forests of Prussia being estimated to cover 23'35 per cent, of the whole surface; while Würtemberg has 31'22, and Baden 35'90. This wealth is partly due to the abundant natural supply, and partly to the methodical way of treating forests adopted by all the states of the empire. The winters being long and severe, an abundant supply of fuel is almost as essential as a sufficient supply of food. This necessity has led, in the absence of coal, and along with a passion for the chase, to the preservation of forests, and to the establishment of an admirable system of forest cultivation, almost as carefully conducted as field tillage. We need only enumerate a few of the principal wooded tracts bordering on the Rhine and the Elbe. The Black Forest stretches the whole length of the grand-duchy of Baden and part of the kingdom of Würtemberg, from the Neckar to Basel and the lake of Constance. The vegetation resembles that of the Vosges; forests of spruce, Scotch, and silver firs, mingled with birches, beech, and oak, are the chief woods met with. The forest of Rippoldsau, on the head waters of the Kinzig, is one of the best forests, and is managed with great care. In the grand-duchy of Hesse, the Odenwald range of mountains, stretching between the Maine and the Neckar, contains the chief supply of timber. These two large tracts of forest are favourably situated with respect to water carriage, and from them the supply of timber for exportation is mainly drawn; it is now, however, so much diminished in passing down the Rhine through populous districts, that it no longer suffices for the demands of the Dutch shipbuilders. The largest spars are called “Hollander.” The floating operations down the several tributaries of the Rhine in the Black Forest are very instructive, and the timber trade may there be studied with advantage. In the duchy of Nassau there are the large wooded tracts of the Westerwald and the Taunus mountain ranges, and the forests cover a large area extending between Neuwied and Bieberich. In Rhenish Prussia the valuable forests nearly equal the arable land in extent. These lie partly in the Ardennes, on the borders of Belgium, and on the mountains overhanging the Upper Moselle, but they do not furnish such stately trees as the Schwarzwald or Black Forest and the Odenwald. The Vosges forests were ceded to Germany in 1872, after the Franco-Prussian war. The Spessartwald, near Asch-affeuburg-on-the-Maine in Bavaria, is one of the most extensive forests of middle Germany, containing large masses of fine oak with extensive plantations of coniferous trees, spruce, Scotch fir, and larch. Bavaria possesses other fine forest tracts, such as the Baierischewald on the Bohemian frontier, the Kranzberg near Munich, and the Frankewald in the north of the kingdom. North Germany has extensive forests on the Hartz and Thuringian mountains, while in East Prussia large tracts of flat ground are covered with Pinus sylvestris, Abies excelsa, and juniper.

Prussia, including Hanover, contains about 20 million acres of forest land. About half of this is private property, and of the other half, managed by the state, part is communal or ecclesiastical forest. Of the state forests, equalling 6,200,000 acres, a small proportion is moorland yet to be planted. The yield of the state woodland in 1871, a large portion of which bears Scotch fir, was 204,796,260 cubic feet, or 34'5 cubic feet per acre of the area devoted to the produce of timber. The total income for the year for timber and other forest products amounted to .£2,100,000, or about six shillings an acre, little more than half of which went to working expenses, the cost of the forest academies, commutation of servitudes, and road taxes.

Much has been done in Germany to preserve and develop the forest resources by establishing training schools, with the result that sylviculture has been most accurately studied, and the economical management of woodland most successfully carried out in that country. The following eight academies existed prior to the unification of the empire. Each large state had one school. They are now being remodelled with a central office at Berlin. [table]

The academies at Neustadt Eberswald and Aschaffenburg are for the study of forestry alone, while in the others the pursuit of agricultural or engineering knowledge is combined with it. In Germany the forest service is a state department, filled by youths of good position, who are specially trained for the purpose. The period of training extends over five years, and its course is thus described by Campbell Walker.

“Nothing struck me as more remarkable than the extent and varied nature of the studies required from forest candidates or probationers in Prussia, and the number of years they are content to spend, first in studying and then in waiting for an appointment. The would-be Oberförster must, after passing certain terms at a Government school of the first class, spend a year with an Oberförster in a ‘ revier, ’ and then pass an examination as forest pupil, after which there is a two years’ course at a forest academy, and an examination in scientific forestry, land surveying, &c., on passing which the pupil becomes a forst-kandidat ; then other two years’ practical study, during at least nine months of which he must actually perform the duties of a forester, after which comes the final Government examination, on passing which he enters the grade of oberfôrster-kandidat. The difference betwixt the two examinations is that the first tests the candidate’s knowledge of theoretical forestry and cognate sciences, whilst the latter tests his ability to apply what he has learnt and capability for employment as Oberförster and in the higher grades. After passing the final examination the ober- förster-kandidat is employed as an assistant in the academies and control offices, in making forest surveys and working plans, and sometimes acting in charge of a revier, receiving certain daily or weekly allowances whilst so employed. After five or six years of this probation he may look forward to being permanently appointed. Thus we have at least five years spent in study and other five in probation, —the former without any pay, and the latter only with meagre allowances, whilst actually employed, before the would-be forest officer is installed; and the time is generally much longer. Yet so great is the desire for Government service, and particularly forest service, in Prussia, and indeed in Germany generally, that there is no lack of competitors.

“The forests form part of the revenue department, and are presided over by an oberland-forstmeister and ministerial direktor, aided by a revenue councillor and joint ministerial direktor and a numerous council, with suitable establishments and secretaries for the various branches The oberland-forstmeister is governor of the academies, and at the head of each is an ober-forstmeister, aided by a numerous staff of professors and assistants

There is a control office of account at Potsdam, where all the forest accounts of the several provinces are finally audited before going to the ministry of finance The 12 provinces of Prussia are divided into 30 circles (Regierungsbezirk), and to each of these an ober-forstmeister is appointed to represent the forest department in the council of local administration (Regierung), and aided by councillors and by the forstmeisters, as a board, to represent forest interests in the Government, and administer the department to the best advantage. Next in order come the forstmeisters, numbering 108, in charge of divisions with an average area of 25,000 hectares, and then the executive officers, 706 Oberförsters, with charges averaging about 3000 hectares, to each of which is attached a forstrendant, or collector of forest revenue, and 3646 Försters (or overseers), with ranges of from 500 to 1000 hectares. The forests have all been surveyed, valued, and divided into blocks, and there are accurate maps representing the extent and situation of each forest district, and the description and age of the timber growing in each block. Whatever be the size of the woods every tree is recorded, and a working plan is drawn out and followed,—certain species being destined to longer or shorter growth, according to their promise of vitality or liability to decay. It may be remarked that such maps form the starting point of every true system of forestry.”

At Aschaffenburg, which may be taken as an example of German forest schools, candidates for Government for est service must first pass the standard of the higher school or gymnasium, which includes classics, mathematics, natural history, and chemistry. They are usually seventeen to nineteen years of age, and they first become apprentices for one year, assisting in the practical work of a forest district. The forest curriculum extends over two and a half years. Besides the director, there are four professors, who teach the following subjects :—

I. Forestry. General management, planting operations, valuation surveys, rotation and details of working plan, transport and sale of timber and other forest produce.

II. Natural Sciences, with special reference to forest requirements: meteorological phenomena, organic chemistry, nutrition of plants, systematic botany and zoology, entomology.

III. Mechanics. Surveying and Engineering, with Road-making.

IV. Forest Legislation and Police.

Practical instruction is given in the laboratory, and excursions are made in the forests. The students who pass the final examination, after five years’ training, are qualified for appointments in the forest service. Careful observations are made at Aschaffenburg regarding the influence of forests on the air and soil, their hygienic importance and effect on climate.

Austria.— Austria, including Hungary and Bohemia, possesses a vast amount of timber, about one-third of the productive area being returned as woodland, and covering 66,000 square miles, situated more in the east than in the west. There are 2,330,000 acres of forest belonging to the state, chiefly in Croatia, Slavonia, Transylvania, and the Alpine regions throughout the empire. Dalmatia and Istria alone have a deficient supply of timber, owing to previous devastations; but the Government is here making great efforts to restore the forests. The prevailing trees in the higher altitudes are Abies excelsa and pectinata and Pinus montana and Larido. The larch mingles largely with the pines. In the low-lying tracts of the Alps ami Carpathian mountains the beech is the principal tree; in the north-west several species of oak; in the south the elm, poplar, chestnut, and walnut. In Dalmatia and southern Tyrol the olive, mulberry, and fig trees abound. Austria produces annually about 67 million cubic feet of timber; and of other forest products the following are principal items :—∙ [table]

The total income in 1872 from the Austrian state forests was 4,148,000 gulden, the expenditure 3,049,000 gulden, leaving a net profit of about £90,000. The Austrian Government are wisely desirous to conserve and utilize their valuable forest property, and there is a state forest department with a staff of 1170 persons, 22 of whom are skilled officers of high position. In parts of Bohemia and Hungary entire forests have been destroyed, rendering useless much soil that is unfit for agriculture. Encouragement is given by the state to persons who make successful efforts to plant denuded ground.

Scientific forestry is not so advanced as in Germany, but increasing attention is being given to the subject. The principal forest academies are at Marien-brunn near Vienna, with a large staff of professors, a laboratory and museum, and at Schemnitz in Hungary. The courses last three years after passing the gymnasium examination, as at Aschaffenburg. Other academies for training more exclusively in the practice of forestry have a shorter course.

Russia.— The inequality of the distribution of wood in the Russian empire is very remarkable. The north of Great Russia, the government of Perm, and Finland have a large proportion of forest land, and the export of timber from Archangel, St Petersburg, and Riga is very great. In central Russia there are also large and valuable forests, but in the south they become scanty. It was recently reported at the annual meeting of the geographical society of Vienna by Councillor Wex, that the Volga is decreasing in volume owing to the destruction of wood in its valley, so as to affect materially the level of the Caspian Sea and Sea of Aral. With the exception of Bessarabia and the Caucasus, including the region south-west of the Caspian, the southern districts of Russia bordering the Black and Caspian Seas are extremely bare of wood, and for household fuel the people use a compost of straw, leaves, &c. The Government has attempted the planting of portions of the vast steppes, and near Odessa there are fine plantations of Ailanthus glandulosa, which give promise of success to further plantings (Marsh). The following statistics of the proportion of woodland in Russia are given in the Journal of Forestry, 1877 :—

“There are in European Russia alone 172,418,000 dessiatins (about 400,500,000 acres) of forests, or 43 ’ 3 per cent, of the entire territory. Such an extent of forests is not to be found in any other country of Europe. Two-thirds, or 66 per cent., of the mass of forests extend over the north-eastern districts; then follow the northwestern governments, where the relative proportion to the general area is 30 to 50 per cent. In the middle Volga, the Baltic, and western and central provinces the proportion is 27'2 per cent., in the southwestern it is 2 - 5 per cent., in the Little Russia and Steppe governments, including the Crimea, it is only 0 ’ 7 per cent. Finland and the Caucasus are not included, which contain splendid timber in great variety, nor the Polish governments, where the forests occupy a very extensive area.”

In the Paris Exhibition Report, 1867, the area of forest in Finland is given at 2,500,000 acres, but in the most accessible parts wasteful and serious denudation has taken place.

The Scotch fir, the spruce, and the Siberian larch are the most common coniferous trees in Russia. The spruce penetrates furthest north, the Scotch fir grows well in the Crimea and the Caucasus, while the larch is chiefly found in the district drained by the Petchora river, and throughout Siberia. These three form the staple of the Russian timber export trade. Birch is also a tree of the northern latitudes, and extends eastwards as far as Kamchatka. In the central and over a large part of the southern portions of European Russia there are good forests of oak, and the beech, boxwood, ash, lime, maple, and walnut all grow in more or less profusion. The oak does not cross the Urals. The ridges of the Crimea are clothed with Corsican pine (Pinus Larido), while the Scotch fir and beech form fine forests in the Caucasus.

Tlιe annual consumption of wood within the Russian empire is enormous, the estimated value being 260 millions of roubles, the railways requiring for fuel alone 7 million roubles worth. In the absence of stone nearly all the buildings are made of wood. Every year upwards of 100,000 vessels of different descriptions descend the Russian rivers, most of which on reaching their destination are broken up for building or fuel. Scotch fir and spruce are usually employed for this purpose. The collection of resin and tar in the northern provinces is very great, about 7000 tons of tar being annually exported. A new industry has sprung up of late years, viz., making pulp for paper from the wood of the aspen, a tree which readily reproduces itself. The lime furnishes material for rope, cordage, and matting.

In 1858, Baron von Berg, a distinguished forest officer of Saxony, was requested to report on the forests and forest management of Firilan<l, and subsequently also of Poland. The establishment of twp schools of forestry resulted from his visit. At the school of Nova Alexandria in Poland, established in 1858, the teaching of agriculture is combined with that of forestry. The passing of a gymnasium examination is necessary before admission. The course of study covers three years, when, after the final examination, the students receive a diploma entitling them to employment in the service of Government. At Evois in Finland, where the school was founded in 1859, the instruction is in forestry only. Though at the commencement the education and quarters were given free, the school had to be closed for lack of pupils; but in 1874 it was reorganized, and now it seems to be in a flourishing condition. The course extends to two years, and the instruction includes forest law and economy, surveying, book-keeping, engineering, mathematics, and kindred subjects. A forest school also exists at Peter-offsky near Moscow, and another at Berdiansk on the sea of Azoff, and many young Russians have been sent to the French and German schools to acquire a knowledge of forest science.

Roumania.— It is computed that there are in Roumania 2 million acres of forest land, though not wholly covered with wood. In the plains species of oak predominate, and according to elevation, walnut, beech, yew, silver fir, and spruce. But the coniferous trees have mostly disappeared, and the forests have been greatly damaged, while, owing to grazing rights, no young trees have been allowed to spring up. A small forest staff has now been appointed, and plans are being formed for the establishment of a school for training forest assistants.

France.— The principal timber tree of France is the oak, and various species are much cultivated. The cork oak is grown extensively in the south and in Corsica. The beech, ash, elm, maple, birch, walnut, and poplar are all important trees, while the silver fir and spruce form magnificent forests in the Vosges and Jura Mountains, and the Aleppo and maritime pines are cultivated in the south and south-west. About one-seventh of the entire territory is still covered with wood.

Forest legislation took its rise in France about the middle of the 16th century, and the great minister Sully urged the enforcement of restrictive forest laws. In 1669 a fixed treatment of state forests was enacted, and in 1750 Mirabeau estimated the woodlands in France at 70 millions hectares. Duhamel in 1755 published his famous work on forest trees. Reckless destruction of the forests, however, was in progress, and the Revolution of 1789 gave a fresh stimulus to the work of devastation. The usual results have followed in the frequency and destructiveness of floods, which have washed away the soil from the hill sides and valleys of many districts, especially in the south, and the frequent inundations of the last fifty years are no doubt caused by the deforesting of the sources of the Rhone and Saone. Laws were passed in 1860 and 1864, providing for the reforesting, “reboisement,” of the slopes of mountains, and these laws take effect on private as well as state property. Beneficial results have already ensued. Thousands of acres are annually planted in the departments of Hautes and Basses Alps; and during the summer of 1875, when much injury was done by floods in the south of France, the Durance, formerly the most dangerous in this respect of French rivers, gave little cause for anxiety, and it is round the head waters of this river that the chief plantations have been formed. While tracts formerly covered with wood have been replanted, plantations have been formed on the white shifting sands or dunes along the coast of Gascony. A forest of Pinus Pinaster, 150 miles in length and from 2 to 6 broad, now stretches from Bayonne to the mouth of the Gironde, raised by means of sowing steadily continued since 1789; and the cultivation of the same pine in the department of Landes has, along with draining, transformed low marshy grounds into productive soil. With the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, a large extent of forest was ceded to Germany in 1871.

An official report, dated 1872, rives the following forest areas:— [table]

In 1877 the French state forests contained 985,086 hectares, and the communal 1,919,622 hectares. The revenue in 1827 amounted to 27,000,000 francs, three-fourths of which was from the sale of timber, and one-fourth from other forest produce. The estimated revenue for 1877 was 38,500,000 francs, 29,500,000 of which was to come from the regular fellings, and the remainder from extraordinary cuttings and minor forest produce. The annual expenses of the forest department average 13,000,000 francs. For 1877 the actual figures were 13,325,732 francs, of which about 5,000,000 is for the pay of the establishment, two and a half millions for roads, two for plantations, and the balance for conservancy and management.

The department is administered by the director general, who has his headquarters at Paris, assisted by a board of administration, who meet twice a week, and are charged with the working of the forests, questions of rights and law, finance, and plantation works. The establishment consists of 36 conservators, 174 inspectors, 310 sub-inspectors, and about 420 gardes généraux, the number being regulated by the exigencies of the service.

The department is supplied with officers from the forest school at Nancy. This institution was founded in 1824, when Μ. Lorentz, who bad studied forestry in Germany, was appointed its first director. Any French youth from eighteen to twenty years of age may compete for admission to the school on producing certain certificates and filing a bond guaranteeing the payment of 1500 francs a year, and 600 francs from the dateof his joining the establishment till he is promoted garde général on full pay. The entrance examination comprises arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physical sciences, chemistry, plan-drawing, mechanics, German, history, geography, and free-hand drawing. The pupils pass two years in the school, and during a third attend lectures, while taking practical charge of portions of forest near Nancy. The school is under a director, a sub-director, and eight professors, besides two officers for militaιy instruction. In the winter session eight hours daily are spent in the school, and the summer teπn is chiefly passed in forest tours, the pupils accompanying the professors, who apply the teaching of the school to objects found in the forest. There are usually 45 to 50 French pupils. The French Government has kindly extended the benefits of this well-equipped institution to candidates for employment in the state forests of British India.

Switzerland.— Forests.in Switzerland cover about 18 per cent., or one-sixth of the whole area, but in some of the cantons excessive deforesting has taken place. On the precipitous mountain sides the forest is found to have a powerful influence in preventing the formation and descent of avalanches, and in the Alps the woods are preserved, though insufficiently, by law. A distinguishing feature of Swiss forests is the prevalence of the silver fir, Abies pectinata, which covers large tracts on the mountains up to 4000 feet; the larch is sometimes mixed with beech to 3000 feet, more rarely with oak and walnut to 1800 feet, and chestnut to 750 feet. Each canton regulates the management of forests within its own limits; but efforts repeatedly made in the Federal Council for the introduction of a uniform system of forest legislation throughout the republic have not yet been successful.

Vigorous attempts to preserve and restore wooded land are made in some of the cantons, and difficulties in the transport of timber from inaccessible points have been skilfully overcome by the ingenious adaptation of wooden tramways and iron rope slips.

Italy.— The kingdom of Italy comprises such different climates that within its limits we find the birch and pines of northern Europe, and the olive, fig, manna-ash, and palm of more southern latitudes. The ascertained extent of wood in 1872, including the wooded island of Sardinia, was, according to Siemoni, 5,025,893 hectares, or about 17'63 per cent, of the entire kingdom, a proportion which might with advantage be greatly increased, but in the latest return it has fallen to 12'34. By the republic of Venice and the duchy of Genoa forestal legislation was attempted at various periods from the 15th century downwards. These efforts were not successful, as the Governments were lax in enforcing the laws. In 1789 Pius VL issued regulations prohibiting felling without licence, and later orders were published by his successors in the Pontifical States. In Lombardy the woods, which fifty years ago reached nearly down to Milan, have almost disappeared. The province of Como contains only a remnant of the primitive forests, and the same may also be said of the southern slopes of Tyrol. At Ravenna there is still a large forest of stone pine, Pinus Pinea, though it has^ been reduced to a third of its former extent. The plains of Tuscany are adorned with planted trees, the olive, mulberry, fig, and almond. Sardinia is rich in woods, which cover one fifth of the area, and contain a large amount of oak, Quercus Suber, Robur, and Cerris. In

Sicily the forests have been long felled save the zone at the base of Mount Etna.

The destruction of woods has been gradual but persistent; in the end of the 17th century the effects of denudation were first felt in the destructive force given t® mountain torrents by the deforesting of the Apennines, and up to the present time the work of demolition continues. According to the statistics published by the Italian Government in 1870, there were 215,801 hectares of state forest, including woods attached to royal residences; but by the sale, alienation, or destruction of the greater part, the area has since been very greatly reduced. Of communal and private forests the extent is, according to Government statistics, [table]

Only about 1,500,000 hectares are really covered with timber, as these figures include land with mere coppice or brushwood.

In 1867 the monastic property of Vallombrosa, Tuscany, 30 miles from Florence, was purchased by Government for the purposes of a forest academy, which was opened in 1869, and energetic measures were initiated throughout the kingdom for the preservation of the remaining woods. It is to be regretted that, by a change of policy, the area of forest has now greatly decreased. The administrative staff consists of 3 inspectors general, 35 forest inspectors, and about 300 subordinate officials. The royal forest school at Vallombrosa is surrounded by a splendid forest of silver fir, and a large extent of broad-leaved chestnut, beech, and other trees is also attached to it. Pinus halepensis and Pinea and larch are the other prevailing conifers. The number of pupils is about 60, and the course of study resembles that at Nancy. A forest periodical is regularly published at Florence. Director di Berenger, who has superintended the school from its foundation, is a man of great learning, and author of several important works on forestry.

Spain and Portugal are very deficient in woodland. The Peninsula is not unsuited to the growth of timber, as evinced by the noble forests which existed in the times of the Moors, especially in the southern provinces. There was a code of forest laws in Spain in the reign of Philip II., but it seems never to have been carried out, and the fine forests have long since disappeared. The evils of denudation are perhaps nowhere more signally exemplified than in Spain, and “Rentzsch even goes so far as to ascribe the political decadence of Spain wholly to the destruction of the forests” (Marsh, p. 306). Although her physical conditions render a large extent of forest almost indispensable to industrial progress, Spain may be said to be the only European country, with perhaps the exception of Great Britain, in which there has been no provision for the protection of woods.

The evergreen oak (Quercus Bex), and its congener the cork oak (Quercus Suber), are found associated with Pinus Pinaster. “The Sierra de las Albuj arras, southward of the city of Granada, is clothed with fir woods up to the peaks on certain places, so that the existing forests would appear to be the remnants of a destroyed girdle of coniferous trees, formerly covering all these chains. In the fluviatile valleys of the Sierra Nevada isolated groups of trees present themselves, the wrecks of larger woods” (Henfrey, p. 295). In central Spain and on the slopes of the Pyrenees there are still considerable tracts covered with Pinus Larido, P. pyrenaica, and P. halepensis, while on the northern coast Pinus Pinaster abounds. The sweet chestnut, indigenous in Spain, forms forests more or less cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which is an important article of food.

A forest school has been lately established in the Escorial, and good results from the training there may be hoped for.

The proportion of woodland in Portugal is nearly the same as that of Spain; but a system of management is in operation under an administrator-general of forests. There are three forest zones characterized by the pine, the evergreen oak, and the deciduous oak. Pinus Pinaster abounds on the coast, giving place south of Lisbon to P. Pinea, the stone pine. The largest forest is that of Leiria, composed chiefly of the maritime pine, Pinus Pinaster·, and adjoining the forest are establishments for the preparation of tar and resin, and the impregnation of wood.

Asia, India.— The forests of British India are of great extent and value. Under the rule of Hindu and Mahometan princes, as well as in the earlier years of British domination, the forests were recklessly injured by felling, or by the recurrence of destructive fires, thereby deteriorating the climate and impoverishing the people. But conservancy has been introduced, in time to preserve many of the advantages they are calculated to afford, to make them a considerable source of revenue to the state, and to provide for the needs of future generations. The change from uncontrolled waste to careful state supervision is necessarily slow: immemorial usages have to be overcome, and many obstructions to be removed, before the department is in good working order; great progress has, however, been made. The forest department is now a branch of the public service, for which candidates are annually selected by the Secretary of State for India.

Attention was first directed to conservation in India by the appointment of a committee by the British Association in Edinburgh in 1850, to consider the “probable effects, in an economical and physical point of view, of the destruction of tropical forests;” and a report was printed in 1851, showing the importance of preserving every influence which tends to maintain an equilibrium of temperature and humidity, of preventing the waste of valuable material, and the special application to their various uses of the indigenous timbers of the country. Indian botanists, to their credit, had long urged on the Government the necessity of stopping the waste of valuable timber. Advancing civilization, the progress of agriculture, and the rapid extension of railways soon rendered it imperative that means should be taken to organize a general system of forest administration, to control the clearing of indigenous forests, and to economize public property for the public good. About 1855 the first attempts at organization were made, the executive arrangements being left to the local administrations. In Bombay, Burmah, and Madras, conservators were appointed who started as it were single-handed and without skilled assistance, depending on such help as could be found in the local services. After the mutiny of 1857 a staff of five or six assistants was sanctioned in each of these provinces, the more valuable forests were mapped out, and exact information was obtained regarding their resources. In 1862 the Government of India organized a departmental system of conservancy for the whole empire, and the office of inspector general of forests was created. A Forest Act, No. 4 of 1864, gave power to local administrations to demarcate the limits of state forests, and to reserve certain trees for state purposes, and notified the mode of procedure in cases of damage, conflagration, &c.; and in October 1877 the report of a select committee on a bill to amend the law relating to the preservation of state forests was under the consideration of the Indian Government. Many of the forest officers first appointed were chosen because of local knowledge and love for natural history rather than their knowledge of practical forestry, but with these extended operations the want of trained assistants soon became apparent. It was therefore determined to train young men specially for the work, and as forestry is in France a branch of Government service, advantage is taken of the forest school at Nancy in France, and five or six youths, after having passed through the usual course of study there, both theoretical and practical, are annually sent to India. In 1876 the officers of the higher grades had increased to 147,—1 inspector general, 10 conservators of provinces, 136 deputies and assistants. The post of inspector general is held by Dr Dietrich Brandis, to whose energy and experience is in great measure due the success which has attended the progress of the department.

Many large and valuable tracts of forest are in the territories of native chiefs; and to prevent these being wholly destroyed, the British Government leases them for a long term of years, paying an annual rent, or a seignorage on each tree felled. Throughout the empire the forest lands are burdened with grazing and other village rights, and it has required much tact to effect the formation of forest reserves to their present extent. As opportunity offers, unreserved forests are added to the reserves. The following figures embrace all the provinces under the Government of India (excluding Madras and Bombay). In 1875-6 the area of reserved and leased forests was 15,089 square miles, being an increase of 3000 square miles during the year. The aggregate area of plantations is about 26,000 acres, and the trees cultivated in the different provinces are as follows — [table]

The most important articles of export are teak, sandalwood, cutch, caoutchouc, and lac, the last chiefly from the Central Provinces. In 1875-6 the following amounts were exported from India :— [table]

The export of teak commenced about 1829, after the annexation of Tenasserim, and at first it was only from British territory. In 1835 teak began to come from beyond the frontier in largely increasing quantities. After the annexation of Pegu forest operations in British territory were regulated, and the average export to Indian and foreign ports from 1856 to 1862 was 20,000 tons, four times that amount coming from beyond the frontier. Nearly two-thirds of the teak goes to Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and the rest to Britain. The finest teak plantation is the Conolly plantation in Malabar on the Beypur River (Madras Presidency), where the rainfall is 150 inches annually. It now covers about 4000 acres, and 100 acres are added every year. The result has been most satisfactory, in the provision of an immense stock of valuable material, and the outlay incurred is being gradually recouped.

Cutch, the extract of the heartwood of Acacia Catechu, conies chiefly from Burmah, partly from Mysore and Malabar. It is used for tanning and dyeing. Lac is chiefly produced in Central India; the collection is expensive, but the quantity may be still further increased. Butea frondosa and Schleichera trijuga are the chief lac-yielding trees. Caoutchouc, the produce of Ficus elastica, is collected in Assam and Sikkim, and latterly also in Burmah, where, however, the tree is not indigenous. Most of the sandalwood of commerce (Santalum album) is from Mysore and Coorg, and is exported from Bombay. In Mysore more than half of the forest revenue is derived from this tree.

The surplus forest revenue from the different provinces for 1875-6 was as follows :— [table]

Much expenditure is needful for improving the roads through the forests, and for the blasting of rocks in rivers, which, both in the plains and in the Himalaya, are much used for floating logs. Fuel plantations on a large scale, especially in Madras and the Punjab, have been formed for the supply of railways and steamboats; the demarcation of forests is steadily carried on, the reserves are mapped, and laws are in force for the exclusion of cattle from the reserves and for the prevention of fires; waste has been prohibited, and in many ways a gradual improvement is taking place. New species of trees of rapid growth are being acclimatized. “From Australia several kinds of Eucalyptus and Acacia were introduced about twenty-five years ago, and they have made such progress that the station of Ootacamund is now almost surrounded by a forest of these trees. Their rate of growth is wonderfully fast, much faster than that of the indigenous trees. Young forests of the quinine-yielding Cinchonas are coming up in many places. The management of these cinchona woods will probably be similar to the treatment of oak coppice in England; for though oak bark has not one-twentieth the value of Jesuit’s bark, it is the bark in both cases for which these woods are mainly cultivated. There will, however, be the difference that while oak coppice in Europe, after having been cut over, requires from fourteen to twenty years to yield another crop of bark, cinchonas grow so rapidly that they may probably be cut over every eighth or tenth year. It lias been decided to establish a forest school in North India for training candidates for the executive branches of service, and to attach to it a large area of reserved forest.

The teak, Tcctona grandis, may be called the king of Indian timber trees; it is prized for shipbuilding beyond any other wood, and is specially valuable for works in contact with iron. It is indigenous in Hindustan as well as in Burmah and the neighbouring states, generally growing in company with bamboos and other trees in dry deciduous woods. It grows to perfection in Malabar and West Buπnah, where the rainfall is heaviest. The northern limit is about 25° N. lat. The sal, Shorea robusta, another most important tree, forms extensivepure forestsalong the base of the Himalaya, from Assam to the Sutlej, and in the eastern part of Central India. It yields a heavy durable timber, in great demand for building, gun carriages, and railway sleepers. The deodar, Cedrus Deodara, is to North India what teak is to Madras, Bombay, and Burmah, and what sal is to Bengal and the great Ganges Doab. It is indigenous in the north-west Himalaya and the mountains of Afghanistan, and forms extensive forests in the basins of the Indus, Tonse, Jumna, and Bhagirati rivers. Black wood (Dalbergia latifolia) and sissu Dalbergia Sissu, toon (Ccdrela Toona), satin wood (Chloroxylon Swietenia), sandalwood (Santalum album), red sanderswood (Pterocarpus santalinus), and the various kinds of ebony (Diospyros) are amongst the most important of the many valuable woods of India.

Official Reports on Forest Conservancy (4 vols, folio), showing the progress of departmental administration in India from 1862 to 1871, issued among parliamentary papers, contain much statistical and practical information. The advance of forest management in India has led to the publication of three useful handbooks :—(1) The Flora Sylvatica of South India, by Col. R. H. Beddome, Madras, 1873; (2) the admirable Forest Flora of North-West and Central India, by Dr Brandis, London, 1874; and (3) The Forest Flora of British Burmah, by the late Sulpiz Kurz, Calcutta, 1877. The systematic working of the forests has also been facilitated by the publication of a code for the transaction of forest business. There is an annual conference of forest officers, when questions of principle and practice are discussed; and a quarterly magazine of forestry— The Indian Forester— published in Calcutta, has been established for the record of observations and experiments. For a classified list of trees with vernacular names and local uses, see the works cited, and the jury reports of the Madras and Punjab Exhibitions; Cleghorn’s Forests and Gardens of South India, 1861; Drury’s Useful Plants of India, 1873; Dalzell’s Bombay Flora, 1861; and Stewart’s Punjab Plants, 1869.

Ceylon.— The coast of Ceylon is fringed with the cocoa palm; the betel palm, talipat, and palmyra also abound, the last in the north of the island, while the interior is richly wooded, having ebony, calamander, satin wood, and 30 or 40 varieties of timber valued for construction and shipbuilding, but no teak. Forest reserves are being formed. (See Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylaniae, Thwaites, 1864.)

Siam.— The forests of Siam contain a large amount of teak, some of which has been exported. Other principal trees are gamboge (Garcinia), gutta-percha (Isonandra), eagle wood (Aquilaria Agallocha), ratans, durian, mangosteen, (Garcinia Mangostana), and several valuable palms, as the sago (Sagus fariniferd). Borneo is remarkable for its luxuriant vegetation, and the extensive forests produce ironwood, gutta-percha, ebony, sandalwood, ratans, saρanwood, gambir, dragon-blood, sago palm, and the mast (Calophyllum) and camphor trees (Dryabalonops). China.— The forest area of the great empire of China is little known, especially in the northern half, which resembles Japan. In the west there are large forests containing ebony, sandalwood, camphor tree, tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera), mulberry, paper-mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), varnish tree, funeral cypress. The mountain regions of the islands of Formosa and Hainau are well wooded. From Formosa we obtain most of our supply of the camphor of commerce. (See Fortune’s China, and Bentham’s Flora Hong-kongcnsis. ) Japan is well wooded, and the arboreal flora presents a remarkable combination of sub-tropical and temperate forms,—the tree-fern, bamboo, banana, and palm growing with the pine, the oak, the beech, and coniferae in great variety. The evergreen oaks and the maples are the finest of all Japan trees, whilst the Rhus vemicifera or lacquer tree, R. succedanea or vegetable-wax tree, Laurus camphora or camphor tree, and paper-mulberry are among the remarkable or characteristic trees of the country. (Siebold and Zuccarini’s Flora Japonica. ) Siberia possesses immense tracts of forest, particularly in the neighbourhood of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Ekaterinburg. Pines, larch, cedar, and birch are the principal trees on the mountains north of the great steppes and marshy plains. The northern limit of the pine is about 70°. Willows, alders, and poplars are used for fuel on the plains. Elms and wild apricots are mentioned by travellers, but the oak is not indigenous. It is estimated that Siberia contains 2,000,000 acres of forest in the districts above named. The vast plateau of Tartary and Tibet is of great sterility, dry, and almost treeless, and the climate is very unpropitious. In Manchuria there are extensive coniferous forests, and on the east coast there is said to be oak on the mountains, while on the low land the maple, willow, apricot, and mulberry are found.

America.

America is of all quarters of the world the most thickly wooded with primeval forest. The territory on the north-west coast and islands is well stocked with pine timber.

Canada.— The forests of British North America are of the first importance for the comfort and welfare of its people, as no coal is found in the centre of the Canadian dominion. Canada contained immense forests, which are still extensive, chiefly of black and white spruce, the Weymouth (Pinus Strobus) and other pines, which grow to a great height and do not admit of undergrowth. The dark and sombre forests are also rich in other commercial woods, such as oaks, ash, maple, hickory, and walnut. The export of timber is very great, and Great Britain draws more from Canada than from any other country. Pinus Strobus yields the largest amount, and is the most valuable of Canadian woods. It is now chiefly obtained from the head waters of tributaries of the St Lawτence. The extensive lumber trade is causing rapid denudation. Tracts of land are let to “Lumber Companies,” whose object is to get as large a return as possible, and annually thousands of acres are destroyed by fire. An Act has recently been passed regarding the public lands of the Dominion, which provides for the care of young trees, whereby in Quebec it is no longer permitted to cut pine trees less than 1 foot diameter at the stump. It has also been proposed to establish a school of forestry.

United States.— The primitive forests of America were of immense extent, and contained a remarkable diversity of species, covering in the 17th century, with insignificant exceptions, all that portion of the North American continent which has been occupied by British colonists, and apparently adequate to the exigencies of advancing settlements to an indefinite future; but now, it is “doubtful if any American State, except perhaps Oregon, has more woodland than it ought permanently to preserve” (Marsh, p. 326). About 40 species of oak are indigenous in America, 16 conifers, several maples, birch, ash, beech, elm,hornbeam, hickory, poplar, magnolia, walnut, butternut, &c. The eastern and midland States were at one time dense forests; now, Pennsylvania alone excepted, these are denuded of the pines and other commercial woods, and are compelled to draw much of their supply from Canada and the West. Even the forests in Pennsylvania, which once yielded the finest pines in America, are now greatly reduced in extent and value. The earliest restrictive measureof Government was adopted inl817, when oak and red cedar were reserved; and a law was passed in 1831 to arrest spoliation. The enormous supplies of timber still brought to market may be judged of from the fact that the number of saw-mills in 1870 was 2δ,817—an increase of over 6000 in ten years. Fortunately public opinion has been aroused, and a Forestry Association has been formed, to show the vast annual decrease of forests, and the urgent necessity of planting to a large extent. In Massachusetts valuable prizes are offered for planting white ash and white pine, spruce and sarch, with a view to the raising of useful timber, and affording the needed shelter to the crops. In 1858 a premium of 1000 dois, was offered for the best plantation of forest trees planted in 1860, payable in 1870. The States of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa have also encouraged tree-planting by State laws. Further west, in the prairie regions, energetic measures are being adopted to create woodlands on hitherto treeless plains. In Nebraska ash, walnut, and elm are largely planted, and along the Central Pacific Railway belts of Australian gum and other trees are being formed to protect the line from snow drifts, and for a future supply of timber. In the State of California a forester has been appointed, and legal provision made to render the discharge of his duties effectual. By a law of California, dated 30th March 1868, the board of supervisors in each county are empowered to authorize owners of lands to plant and cultivate, along the public highways, shade and fruit trees, specifying the species to be planted, at what age, at what distance from each other and from the road bed, and making the necessary rules for their protection, &c. Four years after the planting, upon receiving a duly certified statement of the number then in a good condition, the board are directed to pay to the cultivator one dollar for each such tree. California still possesses her magnificent Sequoias, S. gigantea, which attain when full grown an average height of 275 feet, and a girth of 70 feet at 6 feet from the ground. Sir J. D. Hooker tells of a forest forty miles long, and 3 to 10 broad, in the Sierra Nevada, where alone the tree is indigenous. Wood-cutters and saw-mills are, however, busy at work, converting the valuable Sequoias into marketable timber, and sheep grazing and fires kindled by the lumbermen are effectually destroying the saplings. Hooker writes in 1878—“The devastation of the Californian forest is proceeding at a rate which is utterly incredible, except to an eye-witness. It is true that a few of the most insignificant groves of the big trees at the northern extreme of its range are protected by the State legislature, and a law has been enacted forbidding the felling of trees over 15 feet in diameter; but there is no law to prevent the cutting or burning of the saplings, on which the perpetuation of the grove depends, or to prevent the burning of the old trees, which, if they do escape the fire, will succumb to the drought which the sweeping away of the environing forest will occasion.’ - In Texas, where there is a very inadequate supply of timber, the growth of trees on the prairies is being attempted, but the frequency and destructiveness of prairie fires are great obstacles to success.

Central America.— Mexico and the various states of the isthmus uniting North and South America, as well as the West Indian Islands, possess abundant forests, which are as yet, however, imperfectly known. But they contain many fine timbers in large quantities, the chief of which, mahogany, Swietenia Mahagoni, deserves special notice. The mahogany tree is found on the mainland and in the West Indian Islands between 11° and 20° N. lat. It grows to a large size, with a perfectly straight stem, and is exported from the different states and islands*where it grows. That which comes from British Honduras is esteemed the best, but the supply from there has declined of late years. Mahogany was first imported into England about 1640. It has been introduced into Bengal and Malabar. In the neighbourhood of Panama 2000 persons are employed in drawing off the juice of Castilloa elastica, the Central American caoutchouc tree, and in Nicaragua 600 to 800 persons find similar employment. (See Nature, 1875.)

Cuba.— For variety and value the woods of Cuba rival those of the mainland, but the Government forests have been neglected and left to chance and plunder. There has been no attempt to control the misuse, waste, and wanton destruction of forest. Valuable timber is felled for making enclosures, and much is burnt. Almost all the remaining woods belong to private persons. Mahogany, cedar, and fustic wood, with many others, are produced freely. During last century forty-two ships of war were built in the Royal Arsenal of Havannah, and with proper management much timber for naval purposes might be obtained.

South America.— The richness and luxuriance of the tropical vegetation in South America are proverbial, and the whole chain of the Andes is clothed with wood, varying according to elevation, latitude, and aspect. Owing to the scarcity and high price of labour, with the few facilities of transport to the sea-coast, the timber trade of South America has not as yet reached great dimensions; but with the increase of population and the opening up of the country this commerce will be vastly developed. No data as to the extent of forest area are available, but with great variety of climate in the vast continent there is great diversity also in the vegetation. Each State has its own special forest-products to export, of which, however, we can only name a few of the more valuable.

British Guiana furnishes two of the most valuable timbers known for shipbuilding, greenheart (Nectandra Rodiaei) and mora (Mora excelsa) ; both of these grow to a large size, and are said to be very abundant, but owing to the great demand, and the want of legal restriction to prevent the cutting of saplings, it is becoming difficult to obtain good greenheart. It is to be hoped that the British colonies in the western hemisphere will follow the example of the East Indian empire, and introduce, ere it be too late, measures of conservancy and reproduction. Sir J. Hooker has urged this in strong terms. (Kew Report, 1877.)

French Guiana contains valuable forests, and produces “angelique” (Dicorynia paraensis), a timber much employed in naval dockyards.

Venezuela. —Humboldt mentions in his travels that the waters of the Lake Valencia had greatly decreased owing to the clearings of forest in the Aragua valley, near the northern coast of Venezuela. The Orinoco, the great water highway of Venezuela, is fringed in its lower course with magnificent evergreen forests. The most important trees of this republic are lignum vitae (Zygophyllum arboreum), foun<l chiefly on the coast, and “guayacan,” used for cabinet work. Brazil wood is so common as to be generally used for fences. Cedar and ebony are also among the products. Venezuela is the home of the cow tree (Galactodendron utile), which yields large quantities of nutritious thick milky jnice. The cocoa plant (Theobroma Cacao) is also a native of the north of South America, thriving vigorously with a maximum of humidity and a high temperature.

Ecuador contains great forests east of the Andes, where the climate is excessively humid. The export trade in 1874 amounted to £676,635, upwards of £500,000 being for cocoa, india-rnbber, and cinchona bark. The bark of Cinchona Calisaya is no longer procurable; that of C. succirubτa is exported.

Brazil.— The great empire of Brazil has forests covering an area half the size of Europe. For 2000 miles the river Amazon flows through Brazilian territory, and forms with its tributaries the only interruption in a rich level tract measuring 1200 miles from E. to W. and 800 from N. to S. covered with virgin forest. R. Spruce graphically describes the wonderful luxuriance of a forest on the Amazon.

“As we ran along shore and gradually lessened our distance, I endeavoured to trace out the species composing the forest, but, with the exception of the palms, of the trees with bipinnate foliage, and of a few with remarkable dome-shaped crowns, there was such an intermingling of forms that I in vain attempted to separate them; nor was there, among exogenous trees, any contour so striking as the twisted pyramid of our northern pines. When I entered the forest the confusion was still greater; for so much were the branches of adjacent trees interwoven, and so densely veiled in many cases with twiners and epiphytes, that only an indistinct view could be obtained of any individual tree, and it was only when sailing along the banks of the rivers that I saw so much of the trees in the inundated forest as to give me a clear idea of the outlines and general aspect of many of them.”— Jour. Linn. Soc., v. 3.

The productiveness of the Brazilian forests may be inferred from the fact that in the Paris Exhibition of 1873 were 300 different kinds of timber, many of them of great value both for naval and civil construction and for ornamental work. No plantations have yet been formed of these valuable woods, and fustic and Brazil wood are to be met with only at a distance from the coast. The most important woods of construction are—jacaranda (Dalbergia nigra.), Brazil wood (Ccesalpinia echinata), ironwood (Ccesalpinia ferrea), cedar (Cedréla brasiliensis). But the Brazilian forests though rich in timber are richer still in gums, resins, drags, dyes, and produce valuable for trade and manufacturing purposes. The great development of commerce in forest produce is illustrated by the export returns for 1871-72, viz. :— [table]

Of dye stuffs the best are Brazil wood, fustic (Madura tinctorial), red mangrove (Rhizophora), arnotto (Bixa Orellana); of drugs, sarsaparilla (Smilax sp.), ipecacuanha (Ccphaelis Ipecacuanha), guarana (Pauli inia sorbilis), jalap (Exogonium Purga), &c. Europe draws from Brazil its largest supply of caoutchouc. It is obtained from Siphonia elastica and Hancornia speciosa, trees growing in abundance in the provinces of Amazonas and Para, and so large has been the export that in some districts the supply begins to fail. Capemicia cerifera, the wax palm, is a most valuable tree,—the estimated annual production in wax and fibre is nearly £250,000 (official return). Brazil wood and Brazil nuts (Berthollctia excelsa) are among the largest exports.

Peru.— In the Montana region of Peru (that is, the extensive area stretching eastward from the Andes to the confines of Brazil) are vast forests, yielding in spontaneous abundance Peruvian bark, india-rubber, vanilla, copaiba, cinnamon, sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, vegetable wax, &c., but the collection of produce and its transport through the sierra and coast regions to the ports is attended with much difficulty and expense. The region of cinchona trees lies between 19° S. and 10° N. lat., and between 2500 and 9000 feet elevation above the sea. In South America the miserable Governments of the cinchona districts have almost destroyed the inestimable boon with which a bountiful providence has endowed them. Happily, in this case, the energy of such men as Markham, Spruce, and others has in great measure prevented a loss which would have been incalculable; for the cinchona plantations established in India, in Java, and in various other colonies give promise, that Europeans will not in the future suffer from the thoughtless greed of the semi-civilized Governments of the Andine States.

Chili.— In the inner valleys of the Cordilleras there are estimated to be from 250,000 to 500,000 acres of virgin forest, containing trees of great dimensions.

Uruguay.— The “montes” of South and Central Uruguay form narrow fringes to the larger streams, and rarely exceed a few hundred yards in width. Seen from distant higher ground they resemble rivers of verdure meandering through the bare campos, from which they are sharply defined—the reason being that the wood only grows where it is liable to inundation. N. and E. Uruguay aie little known, but the same description is applicable to them. In the montes of the Rio Negro, Dr David Christison reports having seen twenty species of trees and shrubs, including a palm which extends southwards to the Santa Lucia. The montes of Uruguay are of no commercial value, and their extent must be trifling, but they suffice for the wants of the present scanty population. The beautiful ombu (Piτcunia or Phytolacca dioica) is the only tree which is possibly native on the campos. The softness of its spongy tissue renders it useless for burning and for timber. On the eastern side of South America, continued in the whole stretch of 1500 miles south of the Rio de la Plata to the straits of Magellan, wood seems to be extremely rare, except a few thorny acacias in the plains oi Patagonia, some willows on the banks of one or two of the rivers, and the antarctic beech and the Winter’s bark tree—a great contrast to some of the islands of Tierra del Fuego, which, from the descriptions of Darwin, we know to be completely covered with forest.

Australia.

The large continent of Australia, so far as it has been colonized, is emphatically a pastoral country, and no survey has yet been made of its surface bearing wood. There are vast tracts in the interior covered with scrub, but the total area of forest producing timber seems to be comparatively small. The growth of trees is more vigorous in the east than on the north and north-west coasts. The foliage is usually evergreen, and the leaves of many trees hang vertically. The chief forests occupy the flat margins of the rivers, and are composed of species of Acacia and Eucalyptus mingled with Callitris and Casuarina, Banksia, Melaleuca, Xanthorrhaea, and Exocarpus. The Eucalyptus and Acacia are said to compose four-fifths of the forests of Australia and Tasmania. These trees, formerly despised and thought of little value, are now introduced into many countries where artificial planting has been found necessary, and are extensively grown in India, Mauritius, Algeria, and Italy. The Eucalypti in particular possess many excellent qualities: their timber is of great durability, strength, and toughness; they are rapid in growth; and E. Globulus, or blue gum, is reputed to purify the surrounding air from malaria, and is frequently found 300-350 feet high, while E. diυersicolor attains still larger dimensions. These, along with E. resinifera, iron bark tree, and E. marginata, Australian mahogany, “jarrah,” are reported to be abundant in many parts of Australia. Other principal trees, chiefly in the east, are Cedrela Toona, or red cedar, Gmelina Leichardti, Araucaria Cunninghamii, or the Moreton Bay pine, and Castanospermum australe, or Moreton Bay chestnut. In Western Australia, amongst other forest trees of note, are the raspberry-scented acacia (A. acuminata) and sandalwood (Fusanus spicatus). A simpler system of forest management than the elaborate organizations of France, Germany, or Scandinavia is applicable to thinly peopled colonies. In the province of Victoria a State Forest Board was appointed in 1867, and maps have been prepared showing the distribution of the principal trees within its bounds, the proposed reserves, and the forest ranges. A Planting Encouragement Act was passed in 1872. By the formation of the board, with an inspector of forests to aid by advice, provision has been made for the preservation of existing woods and young plantations. The first annual report appeared in 1875, from which we find that the total area of reserves is 1,805 square miles, estimated to contain 400,000 trees, yielding an average of 700 superficial feet. There is a large state nursery, and there has been great success in planting exotic trees, Abies Douglasii, Cedrus Deodara, Sequoia gigantea, Cupressus torulosa, &c. These measures have been introduced mainly by the energy of Baron von Müller, the Government botanist in Victoria. Attention is directed to the subject in other Australian colonies, where there is an equal call for action, and a beginning towards conservation has already been made in Queensland. Even firewood in some places is now scarce; and the demands for mining and various industrial pursuits render it needful to import timber from other countries.

South Australia.— Dr R. Schomburgk reports in 1878 that three valuable forest trees have been successfully introduced, and are recommended to the forest board :—(1) the American ash, Fraxinus Americana, which has been largely grown in the forest reserves; (2) English elm, Ulmus campestris·, and (3) the plane tree, Platanus orientalis. With regard to replanting the country with roadside trees and clumps, the individual enterprise of farmers, agriculturists, and landowners must be looked to.

In Tasmania the arboreous forms are similar to those of Australia. Eucalypti are even more abundant, and the acaciae begin to disappear. It is remarkable that these two genera should be wholly absent in New Zealand. The vast forests of Western Tasmania are extensively utilized for timber. (See Bentham and Müller’s Flora of A ustralia and Hooker’s Flora of Tasmania. ) New Zealand.— One of the richest portions of the globe as regards arboreous vegetation is the colony of New Zealand. It enjoys a climate similar to that of the south of Europe; the vegetation is most luxuriant, and many tropical plants flourish, while conifers, characteristic of colder regions, also abound. In Britain the number of indigenous timber trees is only 35 out of a flora of 1400 species, while New Zealand has 113 timber trees in a flora of only about 1000 species. The most valuable tree of New Zealand is the kauri (Dammara australis), which grows only in the northern island. It attains the height of 120-160 feet and is 5-12 feet in diameter, is unrivalled for masts, and has long been exported to British dockyards for that purpose. The value for 7 years ending December 1873 from Auckland of kauri alone amounted to £144,000, against £19,739 of all other timber. Besides timber, kauri resin, obtained in great masses, is exported. In ten years the value amounted to £1,171,949; the price varies from £33 to £39 per ton. Other valuable trees are totara (Podocarpus totara) and matai (P. spicata), both found throughout the colony, and, like the kauri, yielding timber of great durability and strength, and Vitex litteralis, or New Zealand teak, esteemed more lasting than any other native wood. There are several species of Fagus, forming beech forest, and many other trees yield valuable wood, as Leptospermum ericoides, the tea-tree, and Santalum Cunninghamii, sandalwood. The forest area in New Zealand was calculated to have been 20,370 000 acres in 1830, and 12,130,000 acres in 1873, by Dr Hector. The public were permitted to fell in the forests on payment of a small licence fee, and reckless unchecked felling has been the consequence. Such rapid deforesting of these densely wooded islands has naturally created an alarm in the legislature, and the Government in 1872 passed a Forest Planting Encouragement Act, offering a bonus for land cropped with trees. Several large plantations have been formed, and the Government has shown itself awake to the importance of the subject. In 1876 Captain Campbell Walker, an experienced officer of the 1 ndian forest service, was requested to examine the resources of the New Zealand forests, and to propose a scheme of working them. His report was presented to both Houses of Assembly in 1877, and deserves the earnest attention of the New Zealand Government. In this richly wooded country clearings have been made with rapidity, and the great work now must be to preserve and propagate the valuable indigenous trees. An idea of the vastness of forest operations in New Zealand is derived from the fact that there are 125 steam or water-power saw-mills at work, turning out 103,039,037 superficial feet in 1876, and from each of these mills a tramway is laid down penetrating into the forests; the rails are generally of wood, and the haulage is by horses. It is understood that large forest tracts are to be demarcated and placed under the control of Government officers. In this way only can a regular system of forest management be carried out, and the temptation to obtain quick returns by sale of valuable forest avoided.

Africa.

A large extent of the continent of Africa is arid and treeless; the drought in the desert is so great that no tree can resist it. But many parts are now ascertained to be rich in wood, and recent discoveries by Baker, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley have opened up vast regions where much beautiful timber abounds. The Atlas Mountains are covered with magnificent forests, containing eight species of oak, Pistacia, Acacia arabica, Cedrus atlantica, closely allied to if not the same species as C. Libani and Deodara, and many other trees. To the south of the Atlas, on the borders of the great Sahara, are large tracts covered with date palms. The Sudan region has few trees; among these are the baobab (Adansonia), tamarind, sycamore, fig, the doom and oil palms, with a few thorny acacias.

Algeria.— The forests consist mainly of the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), the cork oak (Quercus Suber), Q. Ilex, the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica), and the Atlas cypress (Callitris quadrivalvis); associated with these are the Quercus castaneaefolia, Q. ballota, Pinus Pinaster, and other species. The forest area is thus distributed :— state forests, 4,657,567 acres; communal forests, 191,487; total, 4,849,054 acres. About two-thirds of this area is under the management of the forest service, the rest having been granted on long leases for cork production or olive culture. Cork is one of the most valuable of Algerian products, each tree yielding six to eight francs worth at a stripping. A large amount of bark for tanning and 50,000 tons of alpha grass are exported from the province. Conservancy has not yet proved remunerative, but with the extension of railroads an increase of revenue is expected (Major Seaton). The consul-general for Algeria alludes in the following terms to the evils which have attended the deforesting of Tunis :—

“Nothing is more certain than that forests and tracts of brushwood not only prevent the evaporation of moisture by protecting the surface of the earth from the sun’s rays, hut they serve to retain the light clouds which otherwise would be dissipated, until they attain sufficient consistence to descend in rain or refreshing mists. A hill side deprived of the forest ∙whose foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the power of generating vegetable life at all. The rich mould gets washed by winter rains into the valleys; in the summer months tire sand is blown down on the top of this; succeeding rains cany down stones and gravel, till veιy soon all the most fertile portions of the soil disappear, leaving a residuum which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilized by an exceptional amount of moisture, which, as time progresses, must become rarer and rarer, like the efforts of the spendthrift to live off income, and spending every year a portion of his capital."—Colonel R. L. Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis (1877, p. 155).

Tunis. — The African traveller Bruce 110 years ago alluded to the forests through which he passed, where not a tree is now to be seen. Dr Shaw and Desfontaines the botanist mention the Aleppo pine and the making of pitch, but the wide plain over which they journeyed is now treeless, and the forest described by the latter in 1784 has quite disappeared.

Egypt, though possessing no forests, has a considerable amount of wood in acacia, lebbek, tamarisks, tamarinds, zizyphus, àc.,and has also a rich property in its date palms, which grow in great abundance.

Abyssinia has extensive woods in the mountains, whence the coffee plant has spread over the world.

The tropical vegetation of Africa under the equatorial belt of rain is very luxuriant, and differs much on the two coasts. In the interior of Central Africa, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley tell us of vast tracts of primeval forest in the Manyuema country between Tanganyika and the coast, and also in Urungu south of Tanganyika, but as yet little is known of them in detail. The explorations of Nachtigal have shed much light on the regions adjoining Bornu,and Rohlfs describes gigantic tamarind,acacia, and komova trees. Stanley writes in glowing terms of the dense growth of lofty forests through which he had to cut his way, and specially refers to Bassin Parkiι, or shea butter, which attains a large size, Oldfieldia africana, or African teak, kola nut (Sterculia), cashew nut, and gigantic tamarinds.

The western coast states—Congo, Sierra Leone, Senegambia—are all rich in wood, but comparatively little is known of the amount or of the value of the timbers, though some of these already find their way into European markets, in small quantities, viz., barwood or camwood (Baphia nitida), African mahogany (Swietenia Scnegalensis), and African teak {Oldfieldia africana). The low-lying portions are malarious, where the mangroves and other swamp-loving trees abound. The baobab (Adansonia digitata), which grows also on the east coast and in Nubia, attains a large size, with a huge rapidly tapering trunk, and yields a strong fibre from the bark. From the compact green appearance of the foliage of a mass of baobab Cape de Verd is said to have received its name. The Guinea palm (Elate gzιinensis) abounds on the western coast, and England imports annually from Africa 10,000 tons of the palm oil. Valuable gums, as copal, &c., are also obtained from both the east and west coasts; and with the prospective opening up of Central Africa many valuable forest products will certainly come into commerce.

Ashantee may almost be described as one continuous forest, “composed of tall and massive trees, with creepers extending like cordage from one to another, and so matting the foliage together overhead that a green roof is formed almost impenetrable to the sun. Here and there are chinks and skylights through which the sun shoots in and falls upon the tree trunks and ground in gleams and splashes of crystal light. There is not much undergrowth, for that kind of vegetation cannot exist without sunshine, and in the virgin forest is always a kind of twilight” (Winwood Reade).

Lower Guinea.— Wei witsch describes forests extending 700 miles along the coast from the Congo to the Cunene River. These consist of Diospyros, Caesalpinieae, Combretaceae, and Celastrineae, the higher mountains behind being covered with extensive forests of the same families, with Sterculiae, Cynomatiae, and Copaifera Mopane, Benth. He saw ten miles exclusively covered with Hyphaene cuçifera, Pers., and adds: “I conclude that these palm forests covered in past ages a great portion of the coast districts of Angola, where at present they only appear as dwarf bushes without stems, and never blossom.” The only tree which braves the general dwindling is the Adansonia, which is seen in full splendour throughout the district. The export of gum copal from Benguela is about 1,600,000 lb per annum. (Jour. Linn. Soc., ix. 288.)

South Africa has suffered much from denudation, and according to the Colonial Botanists’ reports many of its evil effects have followed, such as the frequent occurrence of sudden and destructive floods, and occasional droughts of extreme severity. But South Africa possesses a great variety of forest trees, yielding timber of great strength and beauty; they are, however, only found in mountain gorges and over a limited area. (Harvey and Sender’s Flora Capensis. ) Mauritius, with its insular position and humid climate, possessed a most luxuriant indigenous vegetation, reaching to the water’s edge; but the aboriginal forests have disappeared, and the scarcity of wood for building and fuel has necessitated an annual outlay of £20,000 for imported timber. To supply the wants of the people, to provide shelter, and to improve the sanitary condition of the island, the local Government adopted measures some years ago for forming plantations on the higher elevations. The Australian eucalypti flourish well, and the planting around Port Louis has been attended with marked advantage to the town. (Flora of Mau- ritius, Baker. ) Through the agency of fire and goats, supplemented by the rapid spread of introduced plants, the rich primitive forests of Rodriguez and St Helena have likewise become extinct. (Hooker’s Insular Floras. ) Madagascar has been celebrated for its luxuriant vegetation, and in the north and east, where the climate is moist, magnificent forests clothe the hills. Elsewhere vegetation forms a narrow belt along the shore. The Ravenala, or traveller’s tree, is characteristic of the island. (Rev. W. Ellis, Rev. Dr Mullens.)

From this sketch of the principal forest lands of the world it appears that, although the progress of civilization and the increase of population have greatly diminished the area of forests in many countries, they still cover a large portion of the earth’s surface, and the necessity of maintaining them is now generally recognized. It is beyond doubt that these vast wooded tracts affect most powerfully the economy of the globe. The direct influences may be summarized from the results arrived at by Humboldt and others:—(1) By screening the soil from the heat of the sun’s rays; (2) by the immense surface these leaves offer to the cooling process of radiation; and (3) by the copious evaporation of moisture from the leaves. Some of the indirect benefits which thus accrue from the presence of forests may be mentioned, such as the maintenance of equable temperature and humidity, the affording of protection and shelter, the control of the regular flow of rivers, and the supply of perennial springs which fertilize and beautify the country. It is the climatic and physical importance of a due proportion of wooded land, independent of the utility of forest products in innumerable arts which now contribute to our comfort and progress, that has at length awakened most of the civilized Governments to the necessity of protecting forests from ruthless spoliation. The following general conclusions adopted in 1851 by the British Association committee already referred to contain principles which, although limited in the first instance to British India, have been found more or less applicable to all countries :—

1. That over large portions of the globe there is still an almost uncontrolled destruction of the indigenous forests in progress, from the wasteful habits of the population.

2. That where conservancy has been introduced, considerable improvement has already taken place.

3. That these improvements may be extended by a rigid enforcement of the present regulations, and the enactment of additional provisions of the following character, viz.,—careful maintenance of the forest by valuation surveys and working plans, and by the preservation or plantation of seedlings in place of mature trees removed, —nurseries being established; prohibition of cutting until trees are well grown, with rare and special exceptions for peculiar purposes; and provision, in the case of trees yielding gums, resins, or other valuable products, that greater care be taken in tapping or notching the trees, most serious damage in some countries resulting from neglect in this operation.

4. That especial attention should be given to the preservation and maintenance of the forests occupying tracts unsuited for other culture, whether by reason of altitude or peculiarities of physical structure.

5. That in a country to which the maintenance of its water supplies is of extreme importance, the indiscriminate clearing of forests around the localities whence those supplies are derived is greatly to be deprecated.

6. That it is a duty to prevent the excessive waste of wood, the timbers useful for building and manufactures being reserved and husbanded.

7. That as much local ignorance prevails as to the number and nature of valuable forest products, measures should be taken to supply through the officers in charge information calculated to diminish such ignorance.

Necessity has caused the adoption of these principles in many lands of both the New and the Old World, and forestry will henceforth be studied as a science as well as practised as an art. It is manifestly of the greatest importance that, in the progressive development of great countries, just and enlightened principles should influence the views and actions of those who are charged with the duty of advising Government in regard to the material resources committed to their care for behoof of present and future generations.

For greater detail and more exhaustive treatment of the subject, the reader is referred to the following works in addition to those already alluded to :— Great Britain. Selby, A History of British Forest Trees, 1842; Marsh, The Earth as zzιodificd bzj Human Action, 1874; Brown, The Forester, 1861; Journal of Forestry, monthly.— France. Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 1877; Jules Clavé, Études sur l’ Économie Forestière, 1862; Nanquette, “Cours d ’ Aménagement des Forêtsf 1868; Annuaire des Eaux et des Forêts-, A. Parade-Lorentz, Cours Élémentaire de Culture des Bois, 1860; Becquerel, Mémoire szir les forêts et leur influence climatérique, 1868; Maury, Les Forêts de la Gaule, 1867; Croumbie Brown, Reboisement in France, 1876,— Germany. Leo, Forst-Statistik über Deutschland und Oesterreich-Ungarn, 1874; Schneider, Forst-und Jagd-Kalender für das Deutsche Reich-, Fischbach, Lehrbuch der Forst-wissenschaft, 1865; Hartig, Lehrbuch für Förster, 1861; Judeich, Die Forst-Einrichtung, 1871. — Switzerland.. Bericht an den hohen Bundesrath über die Hochgebirge Waldungen, 1862. Italy. Di Berenger, Studii di Archeologia Forestale, 1863; Raccolta delle Lcggi Forestall, 1866; Siemoni, Manuale d'Arte Forestale. ( h ∙ C > Forest Law.

One of the most cherished prerogatives of the king of England, at the time when his power was at the highest, was that of converting any portion of the country into a forest in which he might enjoy the pleasures of the chase. The earliest struggles between the king and the people testify to the extent to which this prerogative became a public grievance, and the charter by which its exercise was bounded (Charta de Foresta) was in substance part of the great constitutional code imposed by his barons upon King John. At common law it appears to have been the right of the king to make a forest where he pleased, provided that certain legal formalities were observed. The king having a continual care for the preservation of the realm, and for the peace and quiet of his subjects, he had therefore amongst many privileges this prerogative, viz., to have his place of recreation wheresoever he would appoint. Land once afforested became subject to a peculiar system of laws, which, as well as the formalities required to constitute a valid afforestment, have been carefully ascertained by the Anglo-Norman lawyers. “A forest,” says Man wood, “is a certain territory of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and warren to rest, and abide there in the safe protection of the king, for his delight and pleasure; which territory of ground so privileged is mered and bounded with unremovable marks, meres, and boundaries, either known by matter of record or by prescription; and also replenished with wild beasts of venery or chase, and with great coverts of vert, for the succour of the said beasts there to abide: for the preservation and continuance of which said place, together with the vert and venison there are particular officers, laws, and privileges belonging to the same, requisite for that purpose, and proper only to a forest and to no other place.” And the same author distinguishes a forest, as “the highest franchise of princely pleasure,” from the inferior franchises of chase, park, and warren—named iu the order of their importance. The forest embraces all these, and it is distinguished by having laws and courts of its own, according to which offenders are justiceable. Au offender in a chase is to be punished by the common law; an offender in a forest by the forest law. A chase is much the same as a park, only the latter is enclosed, and all of them are distinguished according to the class of wild beasts to which the privilege extended. Thus beasts of forest (the “five wild beasts of venery”) were the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar, and the wolf. The beasts of chase were also five, viz., the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten, and the roe. The beasts and fowls of warren were the hare, the coney, the pheasant, and the partridge. (See Game Laws.)

The courts of the forest were three in number, viz., the court of attachments, swanimote, and justice-seat. The court of attachments (called also the wood-mote) is held for the foresters to bring in their attachments concerning any hurt done to vert or venison (in, viridi et venatione) in the forest, and for the verderers to receive and mark the same, but no conviction takes place. The swanimote is the court to which all the freeholders within the forest owe suit and service, and of which the verderers are the judges. In this court all offences against the forest laws may be tried, but no judgment or punishment follows. This is reserved for the justice-seat, to which the rolls of offences presented at the court of attachment, and tried at the swanimote, are presented by verderers. The justice-seat is the court of the chief justice in eyre, who, says Coke, “is commonly a man of greater dignity than knowledge of the laws of the forests; and therefore where justice-seats are to be held some other persons whom the king shah, appoint are associated with him, who together are to determine omnia placita foreslae.” There were two chief justices for the forests intra and ultra Trentam respectively. The necessary officers of a forest are a steward, verderers, foresters, regardera, agisters, and woodwards. The verderer was a judicial officer chosen in full county by the freeholders in the same manner as the coroner. His office was to view and receive the attachments of the foresters, and to mark them on his rolls A forester was “an officer sworn to preserve the vert and venison in the forest, and to attend upon the wild beasts within his bailwick.” The regardera were of the nature of visitors: their duty was to make a regard (visitatio nemorum) every third year, to inquire of all offences, and of the concealment of such offences by any officer of the forest. The business of the agister was to look after the pasturage of the forest, and to receive the payments for the same by persons entitled to pasture their cattle in the forests. Both the pasturage and the payment were called “agistment.”

The legal conception of a forest was thus that of a definite territory within which the code of the forest law prevailed to the exclusion of the common law. The ownership of the soil might be in any one, but the rights of the proprietor were limited by the laws made for the protection of the king’s wild beasts. These laws, enforced by fines often arbitrary and excessive, were a great grievance to the unfortunate owners of land within or in the neighourhood of the forest. The offence of “purpresture” may be cited as an example. This was an encroachment on the forest rights, by building a house within the forest, and it made no difference whether the land belonged to the builder or not. In either case it was an offence punishable by fines at discretion. And if a man converted woodlands within the forest into arable land, he was guilty of the offence known as “assarting,” whether the covert belonged to himself or not.

The hardships of the forest laws under the Norman kings, and their extension to private estates by the process of afforestment, were among the grievances which united the barons and people against the king in the reign of John. The Great Charter of King John contains clauses relating to the forest laws, but no separate charter of the forest. The first charter of the forest is that of Henry III., issued in 1217. “As an important piece of legislation,” says Professor Stubbs, “it must be compared with the forest assize of 1184, and with 44th, 47th, and 48th clauses of the charter of John. It is observable that most of the abuses, which are remedied by it are regarded as having sprung up since the accession of Henry IL; but the most offensive afforestations have been made under Richard and John. These latter are at once disafforested; but those of Henry II. only so far as they had been carried out to the injury of the landowners and outside of the royal demesne.” Land which bad thus been once forest land and was afterwards disafforested was known as purlieu— derived by Manwood, from the French pur and lieιι, i.e., “a place exempt from the forest.” The forest laws still applied in a modified manner to the purlieu. The benefit of the disafforestment existed only for the owner of the lands; as to all other persons the land was forest still, and the king’s wild beasts-were to “have free recourse therein and safe return to the forest, without any hurt or destruction other than by the owners of the lands in the purlieu where they shall be found, and that only to hunt and chase them back again towards the forest without any forestalling” (Manwood, On the Forest Laws— article “Purlieu”).

The revival of the forest laws was one of the means.

resorted to by Charles I. for raising a revenue independently of parliament, and the royal forests in Essex were so enlarged that they were hyperbolically said to include the whole county. The earl of Southampton was nearly ruined by a decision that stripped him of his estate near the New Forest. The boundaries of Rockingham Forest were increased from six miles to sixty, and enormous fines imposed on the trespassers,—Lord Salisbury being assessed in £20,000, Lord Westmoreland in £19,000, Sir Christopher Hatton in £12,000 (Hallam’s Constitutional History of England, c. viii.). By the statue 16 Charles I. c. 16 the royal forests were determined for ever according to their boundaries in the twentieth year of James, all subsequent enlargements being annulled. (e. r.)