ox SOILS AND SUBSOILS SUITED FOR PLANTING. 277 



statements it must be borne in mind that, under the infkience 

 of sea-air, the beech may in Scotland thrive better on a poor 

 soil than in the inland parts of Germany. This also accounts 

 for the fact that, although a tree grows less luxuriantly the 

 nearer it approaches the northern limit of the zone to which it 

 belongs, the beech is found well grown in and around the duchy 

 of Lanenburg, and in the south of Sweden and Norway, the 

 boundary of its zone being a line from Odessa, by way of 

 Koenigsberg, to Bergen in Sweden. Again, in Germany the 

 ash does not thrive well near the sea, while the reverse may be 

 the case in Scotland. 



A year's training under a German oberforster, and a course 

 •of study at a forest school, together with numerous tours of 

 inspection with officials in various parts of Germany, are 

 the sources of information contained in this report. Ijegun in 

 leisure, it has been curtailed from want of time, and the Coniferse 

 are not included. It has been taken for granted that the most 

 violent storms in winter come from the west. This is a mere 

 assumption, seeing that the direction of the wind is always 

 to some extent modified by the direction of the valleys and 

 mountain chains in the surrounding district. 



*& 



Introductory Eemarks concerning Soils and their Kela- 

 TiONs to the Growth of Timber. 



Before considering the marked differences of growth exhibited 

 "by the several forest trees, according as they occur in various 

 kinds of soil, it might have been expedient to state Ijriefly the 

 chemical constituents of the principal minerals which occur in 

 the rocks, whose decomposition yields the soils on which these 

 trees grow. As that, however, belongs to agricultural chemistry, 

 we refrain from entering on that subject. 



The growth of any particular tree depends on the nature of 

 the soil A, and of the situation, B, on which it occurs. 



A. As regards the soil, we must take into account, — 



1. Chemical composition. 



2. Amount of moisture. 



3. Desree of looseness. 



"O" 



4. Depth of soil. 



5. The quantity of humus. 



6. Nature of the subsoil. 



1. The Chemical Composition of the Soil affects the growth of 

 trees indirectly by means of its physical properties {e.g., the 

 amount of moisture contained, and the degree of looseness or 

 porosity), and also directly by the mineral matter taken up by 

 the rootlets, and deposited in the wood and leaves in their annual 

 growth. This mineral matter, which remains as ashes on wood 

 being com'pletely burned or decomposed, forms a small per-centage 

 of the cubic contents of any tree, and, according to some (Dr G. 



