516. Forestry.—Since this region has been settled for hundreds of years, and has a dense population (see the table below), the people have been compelled to cultivate their land well, and to take good care of their for ests. A hundred years ago there was almost a wood famine here because sheep and cattle and forest fire had been allowed to eat up the little trees, as they so often do in America.
What timber there was had been carelessly cut. With this neglect of forest, wood became scarce and so costly that the European people began to think about these things, and resolved to take better care of their forests. They have made great changes in one hundred years. You can now travel in this region for days without seeing bare mountainsides made deso late by fires, such as are so common in almost every American state.
Wood is so costly in that densely peopled land that the forests are planted with little trees three or four feet apart, much as we plant corn. When the tree trunks are the size of a man's wrist, some of them are cut to be used for bean poles and fence palings.
When those that remain are the size of an arm, some are cut for firewood. Thus the forests are cut over many times, until finally only a crop of sawlogs remains. When the last trees are cut, every scrap is used. Even the twigs are taken to the bakery to make a quick fire that will bake crisp-crusted bread. Then the forest is planted out again to raise another crop. In this region the forester is a very impor tant man; he goes about with his dog at his heels, taking care of the precious trees of the beautiful forest.
517. Agriculture.—What Europe has done with these low mountains we shall some day have to do with our eastern highlands. The people cultivate as much of the Central European Upland as they can.
The valleys are in farms, most of them small with no fences between them. Some of the hillsides also are cultivated, and there are farms on many level hilltops. Long ago, be fore Australia, Argentina, and many other distant lands began to produce wool for the European market, many flocks of sheep were kept on the hillypastures of the Central High lands. Now, instead of sheep, goats and cows are usually kept because these animals give milk, while wool can be imported from foreign lands. To feed the animals in winter,
large crops hay, oats, and beets are grown. It is too cold for corn, and little wheat is grown, except in the French section along the upper Rhone. Rye is often grown on the uplands.
The poorest part of the whole region is the upland of the Cevennes west of the Rhone, much of which is only a poor pasture. • Many of the hillsides sloping south are covered with orchards and vineyards. The most famous wine-producing section is near the upper Rhone in France, in the province of Burgundy. It is called the "Cote d'Or," meaning "side of gold," because the valuable grapes from its hillsides have brought in so much money.
The largest agricultural section of this whole region is in the valley of the upper Elbe, the Bohemian plain around Prague. Here the patient workers weed by hand the little beets which in autumn will make the rich harvest of beet sugar, enough for their own dense population and much to spare for export. Great quantities of potatoes, barley, oats, and rye are also grown, for much food is needed where so many people li.ve, and the small farms have to be intensively cultivated.
518. Mining and manufacturing.—There is a small coal field and some iron ore in the French highland west of the Rhone. These resources have made the French town of St. Etienne a famous iron-manufacturing center. Many French cannon have been produced there. The French town of Nancy is also an iron-manufacturing center. One of the great iron-ore regions of the world is in Lorraine. It produces much of the ore for French, German, and Belgian furnaces (Sec. 448). Longwy and Briey are ore mining districts. The most important field of good coal is in the valley of the Saar River, which is a branch of the Rhine. This valua ble field belongs to Germany, but the exclusive right of mining coal for fifteen years was given to France in 1919 by the Paris Peace Conference, to help pay for the French mines near Lille which the Germans had destroyed during the World War.
Czechoslovakia has coal fields in connec tion with which have grown up industries in iron, glass, and steel.