Note 279 — Chapter III · (continued 3)

Rentzsch (Der Wald, etc., pp. 123, 124) states the proportions of woodland in different European countries as follows:

Per cent.Acres per head of population.Per cent.Acres per head of population.

Germany 26.58 0.6638 Switzerland 15. 0.396

Great Britain 5. 0.1 Holland 7.10 0.12

France 16.79 0.3766 Belgium 18.52 0.186

Russia 30.90 4.28 Spain 5.52 0.291

Sweden 60. 8.55 Portugal 4.40 0.182

Norway 66. 24.61 Sardinia 12.29 0.223

Denmark 5.50 0.22 Naples 9.43 0.138

Probably no European countries can so well dispense with the forests, in their capacity of conservative influences, as England and Ireland. Their insular position and latitude secure an abundance of atmospheric moisture, and the general inclination of surface is not such as to expose it to special injury from torrents. The due proportion of woodland in England and Ireland is, therefore, almost purely an economical question, to be decided by the comparative direct pecuniary return from forest growth, pasturage, and plough land.

In Scotland, where the country is for the most part more broken and mountainous, the general destruction of the forests has been attended with very serious evils, and it is in Scotland that many of the most extensive British forest plantations have now been formed. But although the inclination of surface in Scotland is rapid, the geological constitution of the soil is not of a character to promote such destructive degradation by running water as in Southern France, and it has not to contend with the parching droughts by which the devastations of the torrents are rendered more injurious in that part of the French empire.

In giving the proportion of woodland to population, I compute Rentzsch's Morgen at .3882 of an English acre, because I find, by Alexander's most accurate and valuable Dictionary of Weights and Measures, that this is the value of the Dresden Morgen, and Rentzsch is a Saxon writer. In the different German States, there are more than twenty different land measures known by the name of Morgen, varying from about one third of an acre to more than three acres in value. When will the world be wise enough to unite in adopting the French metrical and monetary systems? As to the latter, never while Christendom continues to be ruled by money changers, who can compel you to part with your sovereigns in France at twenty-five francs, and in England to accept fifteen shillings for your napoleons. I speak as a sufferer. Experto crede Roberto.