SUITED FOR PLANTING. 299 



seventieth to tlie ninetieth year, and as they do not continue in 

 good growth so long as that tree, such mixed forests ought to have 

 a term (turnvs) of about ninety years. In the natural reproduc- 

 tion of such forests the ash, maple, sycamore, and elms should 

 he first reproduced, and the young plants from their seed should 

 have abundance of sunlight allowed them. On account of the 

 value of their timber such mixed forests yield a large revenue. 



Hornbeam {Garpinus bctulusJ.—JAke the beech the hornbeam 

 is chiefly employed for fuel in Germany, owing to the fact that 

 it seldom attains suitable dimensions for the better class of 

 timber. We lately met an engineer who for some time had 

 been desirous of obtaining logs of hornbeam 30 ft. x 16 inches 

 square, but was unable to find them. Unlike the beech, how- 

 ever, it is here not met with in unmixed forests ; only far to the 

 east, where the growth of the beech in pure forests over large 

 areas begins to cease, as in Eussia, where it takes the place of 

 the latter tree, does it occur in pure forests. Closely allied to the 

 hornbeam is Ostrya vulgaris, which occurs as a forest tree 

 principally in South Germany. 



Owing to the hardness of its wood, the hornbeam is not much 

 esteemed as fuel by the German peasants, although it produces 

 more heat than the beech ; in sawing and cutting it in small pieces 

 the tools lose their edste. To rear it for timber would be un- 

 profitable ; in addition to its slow growth it has a short life, eighty 

 years being a high average. It is used for cogs and toothed 

 wheels, screws, axe-handles, joiners' tools, shoe-lasts, and the like. 

 It is often regarded by the forester as an enemy against whom 

 strong measures must be taken ; but the hornbeam, when it has 

 once gained a footing in the soil, is tenacious of life. It steals 

 into beech and oak forests, especially when growing in fresh, 

 humous soils, and prefers the fertile plains and undulating hill- 

 sides to the higher mountain slopes. It seldom grows in sour, 

 marshy ground, but not unfrequently around such places, and 

 ought to be cultivated there as a nurse to any of the more valuable 

 timber trees {e.g., ash), which thrive well on moist or even wet 

 soils, for it suffers less than any other hardwood from late frosts. 

 Where, however, the soil is too wet, the hardwood should not be 

 reared, as their timber would not be valuable ; the alders (Almcs 

 ghitinosa and Almis incana), with their more rapid growth, 

 although soft woods, produce a better revenue. 



We may designate the hornbeam the hardiest of our hardwoods; 

 late frosts, the damage done by cattle and sheep grazing where it 

 is growing, or by roeljucks beating the last from off their horns 

 in the spring, aye, the axe of the woodman, injure it less than 

 they do any other tree. The injuries done to it in earliest youth 

 by mice and cattle often affect it seriously, but if fairly rooted, 

 it reproduces itself from the stool. Seeing that the power of 

 springing from the stool is so great, it is well adapted for the for- 



