July 2r>, 1917 . - 



J. B. WOODS, MALVERN, ARK. 



. Now that the seasou of winter sports is coraiug, there may be a 

 measure of timeliness in mentioning that king of all pastimes which 

 in the days of wood-burning furnaces and kitchen ranges was enjoyed 

 by many a school-boy, from New England to the Lakes. For those 

 of us who dwelt in small towns there was a proliminary period of an- 

 ticipation, while certain farmers drove regularly into our backyards 

 with loaded sleds and starting at the woodshed walls, built symmetri- 

 cal tiers of cordwood which reached half across our yards and ap- 

 peared to be a mile long. Then, after the piles had been measured 

 to prove that so many cords had been delivered, our thoughtful fathers 

 brought home newly sharpened buck-saws and left them with us. 



As I recall the details of more than one such occasion, the instruc- 

 tions were to cut all knotty pieces exactly in their centers for furnace 

 fuel and to make three equal parts of all others so that they would 

 fit the range after being split. And strange to say theio always was 

 a preponderance of knotty stuff. After an eveniug spent in calcula- 

 tion the fact became apparent that just so many sticks were to be 

 sawed each night after school in order to finish the job by spring. So 

 the sport began, and many were the ruses adopted to bring into our 

 yards those unfortunate lads who lived in tenements and had no wood- 

 piles to play with. 



Beech, birch and maple, hardwoods all, with the accent upon the 

 first syllable. Practically every mother possessed an unreasonable 

 fondness for maple to use in the kitchen and complained regularly that 

 the pile was running largely to beech. Of course they could not under- 

 stand this, but their sons could, for of all the species represented in 

 those tiers the sleek and gray-backed beech sticks w-ere easiest to cut. 

 From the standpoint of a one-time bucksaw pusher, I cast my vote 

 for beech as the premier fire-wood, laying all considerations of fuel 

 value aside in the interest of sport. 



It is a far cry from New England to the Grand-Duchy of Hes.sc, but 

 over in that tiny state there is an area of hill land, which in topography 

 and general appearance closely resembles the thickly settled and roll- 

 ing country of our own Northeast. Each narrow valley is green with 

 fodder and vegetable crops, while upon the slopes green fields merge 

 into orchards and orchards into woodlands. Splendid roads twist about 

 in every direction, and along each white course are farm buildings and 

 the occasional spiies of village churches. There seems to. be but one 

 material difference in the distant view ; we have no ruined castles or 

 Bismark Towers to crown our hilltops. 



Except for the fact that there are no sugar maples here, .this country 

 of the Odenwald would be a paradise for the buck-saw boy, for the 

 hills are covered with beech. And the Hessian foresters who control 

 these forests agree with me in the belief that the smooth-barked and 

 fast-growing fellow is a natural-born fuel wood. They do not claim 

 that he is particularly valuable as a producer of timber; in fact, the 

 trees of Odin's Wood are too branchy and short to rejjresent fairly 

 the sawmill possibilities of this genus. They put their trust in fuel, 

 and thereby earn a fair profit for those who own the forests. 



In olden times, when all German forests were peopled with elves and 

 gnomes, not to mention thieves of low and high degree, there was a 

 transient industry developed by wandering bands of Bohemians, 

 namely the manufacture of glass. Of course this does not date back 

 so very far, but then the passing of supernatural woods creatures and 

 mortal robbers is not beyond the memories of old people now living. 

 These Bohemian glass-blowers scoured the countries adjacent to their 

 .own, and when they found a stand of fine beech they pitched camp and 

 got down to business. For beech made splendid charcoal, and this 

 heat-producing article was the backbone of their industry. So we find 

 that throughout the Odenwald there are no large stands of this hard- 

 wood whose individuals are long enough of bole to make really fine 

 sawlogs; rather they are bushy and much addicted to branchiness, a 

 condition which general!}' follows wherever cutting has been made by 

 the process of selection. In other words, wherever a forest is robbed 

 of its best individuals the younger stuff coming up will have more 



room to grow sidewise, and less need of shooting upward for the light. 



But the glass industry progressed beyond the stage of gypsy camp 

 and charcoal kiln, and the Germans awoke to the possibilities of forestry 

 practise, so that as time went on these forests came under a system 

 of regular productive and destructive treatment. .And in many cases 

 new species of foreign timber trees, principally conifers, were intro- 

 duced as ofl:'ering quicker returns on the investments. But people must 

 keep warm in winter, and although Germany is not a country of extreme 

 climatic changes, nevertheless her winters smack strongly of the real 

 thing. The Hessians possessed these stands of imperfect beech trees, 

 and they entertained positive opinions on the subject of keeping warm, 

 so although there came a time when coal could be bought for the 

 equivalent of seven doUars per ton, for all that the foresters kept hack- 

 ing at their beeches and selling the product at a fair profit. 



In terms of cords per acre these forests round about tlie small 

 village of Lindenfels have a standing growth of between forty and 

 fifty. Even at thirty cords to the acre, or the equivalent thereof, 

 which in native terms' is cubic meters per hectar and bears a different 

 ratio, the yield if clear cut would amount to something like three 

 hundred doUars. These figures antedate the war — probably the values 

 are out of sight by now, considering the destruction which all timber 

 producers have suffered in the evergreen woods. Split cordwood 

 brought twelve dollars in our money, large limbs seven and faggots 

 three per cord, delivered at roadside, or in other words not more thiAi 

 a few yards from the stumps. At the current price for sawlogs the 

 wood paid better when sold as fuel, especially among trees from 50 to 

 100 years old. 



Under certain conditions nature regenerates the stand when the 

 trees are gone. Otherwise man does it by nature's aid. But the law 

 of the land is such that for every acre cut over an equal area must be 

 replanted by one method or another. So they watch for a good mast 

 year, and when the tops hang full of nuts they send men and women 

 into the woods to scratch about under the few seed trees which always 

 are left after the cutting. Thus the ground is made ready, and when 

 the nuts have fallen they drive cattle or sheep through the woods to 

 plant the seeds with their hooves. Strangely enough hogs never are 

 used for this purpose. If the animal agents are unavailable, men and 

 women are put to work with mattock again or else the ground is left 

 alone in the knowledge that falling leaves and winter snows will do a- 

 fair job at covering the nuts anyway. 



I have before me a summary of the Lindenfels forest budget for 

 the year 1912-1913, covering an area of 400 acres and bearing an ex- 

 planatory title as long as the page is wide and then some. There are 

 five main divisions, consisting first of a definition of aU cutting opera- 

 tions and dealing with every conceivable situation which may arise. 

 They do not state how many steins of Hessenbrau the forester shall 

 consume per diem, but then he is an old man and ought to know how 

 to regulate his own strictly personal affairs. Interesting among the 

 provisions is one which declares that the litter shall be sold from one- 

 twentieth part of the total area during the given period, which keeps 

 the market active by limiting the supply. 



Four main appropriations follow, namely 200 marks for replanting 

 cutover lands; 160 marks for road building, which means mainte- 

 nance, as there are enough good roads already; for collecting insect 

 pests, 2.5 marks; and for protecting friendly birds, five marks. One 

 can scarcely keep from asking the kind forester just how well he ex- 

 pects to feed the birds on four hundred acres with a dollar and a 

 quarter to spend during a whole year. But he is just like any other 

 salaried man, albeit perhaps a trifle wiser than the average, and he 

 does as nearly as possible that which his directors, the village fathers, 

 tell liiui to do. And as he makes them a nice fat profit on their in- 

 vestment, even as high as three per cent some years, it scarcely be- 

 hooves us to criticize. He may be weak on sawmilling, but when it 

 comes to cutting firewood without diminishing the standing timber 

 he can deliver the goods. 



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