There is probably no country--there are few large farms even--where at least one-fourth of the soil is not either unfit for agricultural use, or so unproductive that, as pasture or as ploughland, it yields less pecuniary return than a thrifty wood. Every prairie has its sloughs where willows and poplars would find a fitting soil, every Eastern farm its rocky nooks and its barren hillsides suited to the growth of some species from our rich forest flora, and everywhere belts of trees might advantageously be planted along the roadsides and the boundaries and dividing fences. In most cases, it will be found that trees may be made to grow well where cultivated crops will not repay the outlay of tillage, and it is a very plain dictate of sound economy that if trees produce a better profit than the same ground would return if devoted to grass or grain, the wood should be substituted for the field. Woodland in European Countries. In 1862, Rentzsch calculated the proportions of woodland in different European countries as follows: [Footnote: Der Wald, pp. 123, 124.] Norway.................................. 66 per cent. Sweden.................................. 60 " Russia.................................. 30.00 " Germany................................. 26.58 " Belgium................................. 18.52 " France.................................. 16.79 " Switzerland............................. 15 " Sardinia................................. 12.29 Neapolitan States........................ 9.43 " Holland.................................. 7.10 " Spain.................................... 5.52 " Denmark.................................. 5.50 " Great Britain............................ 5 " Portugal................................. 4.40 " The large proportion of woodland in Norway and Sweden is in a great measure to be ascribed to the mountainous character of the surface, which renders the construction of roads difficult and expensive, and hence the forests are comparatively inaccessible, and transportation is too costly to tempt the inhabitants to sacrifice their woods for the sake of supplying distant markets. The industries which employ wood as a material have only lately been much developed in these countries, and though the climate requires the consumption of much wood as a fuel, the population is not numerous enough to create, for this purpose, a demand exceeding the annually produced supply, or to need any great extension of cleared ground for agricultural purposes. Besides this, in many places peat is generally employed as domestic fuel. Hence, though Norway has long exported a considerable quantity of lumber, [Footnote: Railway-ties, or, as they are called in England, sleepers, are largely exported from Norway to India, and sold at Calcutta at a lower price than timber of equal quality can be obtained from the native woods.--Reports on Forest Conservancy, vol. i., pt. ii., p. 1533.