Switzerland

Forests.

The entire forest area of Switzerland on Jan. 1, 1924, was 3,803 sq.m. (nearly 24% of the whole country), chiefly coniferous (pine, fir and larch), but with considerable patches of oak, beech and maple on the lower lands. This total represents a considerable increase in recent years largely dependent on : (a) confederation-controlled re-afforestation schemes (in 1925 over 15 million trees [chiefly coniferous] were planted) ; (b) scientific preservation of the woodlands with which the forestry department of the Federal polytechnic school at Zurich is closely associated. The Federal Constitution of 1874 handed over to the confedera tion the responsibility for the forests "in the high mountains," and in 1876 it was enacted that the public forests should be sur veyed, rights of way and of fuel should be legally determined and then surrendered with suitable compensation, the forest areas should never be reduced but increased by new planting schemes, with, if necessary, Federal financial support. Since 19o2 the Confederation has oversight of all forests, however owned, within its area. The most extensive forests occur in the five cantons of Berne, Grisons, Vaud, Valais and Ticino.

Area.

The 1923-24 determination gave Switzerland a total area of 15,940 sq.m. Of this, 77.45% are reckoned as "pro ductive," and support the large total of over 212,00o peasant proprietors, chiefly on the grasslands which occupy 53.2% of the productive area; about two-thirds of the grassland is pasture. Forests occupy 28.9% of the "productive" area. Of the "unpro ductive" area, amounting to nearly 3,60o sq.m., the greater part is composed of bare mountain and plateau slope, yet much con sists of lakes and rivers, while glaciers cover about 700 sq.m.

Population.—Well-organized census returns were made at ten year intervals from 1850 on (except that a census was taken in 1888 and not in 1890). To the nearest the several totals were as follows, beginning at 185o and ending at 192o: 2i, 21, 21, 2i, 3, 3i, 3i, 3i. There has also been a steady in crease in density of population from 150 per sq.m. in 1850 through 207 per sq.m. in 1900, to 255 per sq.m. in 1930. The total population by the census, Dec. 1, 1930, was 4,077,079 per sq.m.). The total increase in the second half of the 19th century was 38%, and in the first quarter of the loth was 23%.

The least densely populated cantons are the Alpine ones,

e.g., Grisons (46 per sq.m.), Uri (55) ; the Jura cantons are much better populated : Vaud (268), Neuchatel (408), whilst the densest of all the complete cantons are Geneva (1,587) and ZUrich (926). The half-canton of Basle-Stadt (11,074, area sq.m.) is an exception. See Statisches Jahrbuch der Schweiz.

The Non-Swiss element of the population increased from 3% i9 1850 to 11.6% in 1900, but fell to 8% in 1930; its total increased from 71,570 to 355,522. The Germans are the most numerous; next in order come Italians, French and Austrians.

The emigration of Swiss beyond seas was but 1,691 in 1877, though it rose in 1883 to 13,5o2 (the maximum as yet at tained). In 1899 it had fallen to 2,493, but in the five years end ing 1926 (inclusive), it has averaged about 5,400, viz., 5,787, 8,006, 4,140, 4,334, 4,947• Language.—By the Federal Constitution of 1874, German, French and Italian are recognized as "national languages" for the purposes of debates in the Federal parliament, and for the public notification of Federal laws and decrees. The recognition in 1937 of Romansh as a fourth national language did not affect the constitution.

This quaint survival, called Romansh, of a "lingua rustica" of the Roman empire, and its dialectical variant, Ladin, are chiefly spoken in the canton of Grisons (q.v.), Ladin in the Engadine, etc., and Romansh in the }hinder Oberland, etc. The literature of this tongue is scanty and the dialects are partly maintained artificially by societies founded for that purpose. Even in the Grisons where one-third of the people speak the lan guage and approximately one-fifth Italian, German predomi nates, as it does also in 15 other cantons; in the remaining ones, French prevails in Vaud, Neuchatel, Geneva, Fribourg, and the Valais, and Italian in Ticino. Detailed census returns as to language have revealed a certain amount of shifting. German was spoken by 71.3% of the population in 188o, by 69.8% in 1900 and by 70.9% in 1920; the figures for French are respec tively: 21.4, 22 and 21.2%, and for Italian, 5.7, 6.7, while Romansh (and Ladin—not tabulated apart) fell from and 1.2 to 1.1%.

Chief Political Divisions.—The political divisions are the communes (of which there are now about 3,000), district (198), and cantons (22). (See GOVERNMENT.) Of the cantons, 19 are undivided. In 1831 the rural districts of Basle revolted against the undemocratic rule of the urban trade guild ; the latter were twice defeated in the field before they agreed (in 1833) to the subdivision of the canton into Basle-Stadt and Basle Land. Un terwalden, from before 1291, was divided into Obwalden and Nidwalden, representing two distinct physical divisions in dif ferent river valleys. In 1291, Nidwalden accepted alliance with Uri and Schwyz ; Obwalden did not join until later. The Reforma tion led to a division (1597) of Appenzell into the Inner Rhoden, mainly Roman Catholic and pastoral, and Ausser Rhoden, largely Protestant and industrial.