294 



Tlie Hoi'ticuliunst and Jownal 



locust, and are destined to furnish " sleepers " 

 for the road as they are wanted. This ad- 

 mirable practice might he advantageously 

 copied hy railroads in this country. But not 

 until you approach Bavaria do you seem to 

 get into the great forests. These belong to 

 the commons or cloister. Nearly every village 

 has its common, where everybody has an 

 equal right to cut wood or use other fuel that 

 may be there. The trees are planted in rows 

 four feet apart, in well prepared soil ; but 

 they do not try to cultivate rapidly ; the 

 people say that they will grow up in a hundred 

 years, and they are satisfied with that. They 

 do not allow any stock to injure the trees, and 

 the young pines, especially, are allowed to 

 grow very thickly. They make furrows, and 

 the seeds float along from the parent tree and 

 lodge in furrows ; therefore, they come up in 

 rows. They usually allow one or more trees 

 to stand to cast the seed that will stock the 

 ground anew, and also to protect the young 

 trees coming on. I found but few kinds of 

 trees in their forests. I found thirty-six kinds 

 of American trees in their parks, but none of 

 them in their forests. Where the Scotch pine 

 is carefully started, it grows straight up, and 

 is usually ready to cut in about fifty years. 

 It is valuable for timber. The Austrian pine 

 is used to obtain tar, and is scarified and 

 drained about ten years before it is cut down for 

 timber. The silver fir, of Bohemia, makes 

 a magnificent tree, and some of you who are 

 musicians may be curious to learn that your 

 music boards are made from this silver fir tree, 

 and are shipped to this and other countries. 

 The Norway pine is more largely grown than 

 any other tree. A small pine is found in 

 large quantity in Italy, but is little used. 

 The European larch, which though a conifer 

 is not an evergreen, is a beautiful tree, and 

 might well be used where durability is desired, 

 though there seems to be a very popular pre- 

 judice against its use. These trees named 

 are the only conifers found to any extent in 

 Europe, though the beech, birch, iron wood, 

 ash, oak and maple are found in moderate 

 supply. But very few of our American white 

 pine trees are to be found, but wherever thc}^ 



have been cultivated they grow very large, 

 exceeding in size almost every other variety 

 of timber. The beech grows on low lands, 

 and is used usually for fuel. The felloes and 

 spokes of wheels are made from this wood. 



. The ash tree of Europe is tall and beautiful. 

 The birch is not confined to water banks, as 

 here. It is a short-lived tree, and is usually 

 removed within about sixty years. Many 

 acres of waste land are being planted with 

 Scotch pine. There are in Austria two kinds 

 of forests, called the high forests and the low 

 forests. The beech and oak are used to plant 

 the low forests, and pine fur the high forests. 



There are for forest purposes but two kinds 

 of maple ; seldom saw any American maple. 

 All stock is kept out of the forests, so that 

 there is a very thick undergrowth ; but in the 

 pines the forest is so thick that the sun cannot 

 peep in, and no undergrowth will appear, but 

 the needles drop from the tree and form a nice 

 carpet. One of the difficulties is wind storms. 

 I saw a wood of 3,000 acres that had been 

 broken down, and all the trees near the wind- 

 fall are shaken, and insects take hold of them 

 and destroy them, and therefore the forester 

 comes and saws them down, for they do not 

 chop down trees there with axes. A fine dis- 

 play at the exposition was Prince Albert's col- 

 lection of the insects that destroy the forests, 

 together with a full description of their habits 

 and effects upon the various timbers. 



General Heflertions oti ivhat lie stiw, 

 — Where oaks were grown expressly for tim- 

 ber, there was observed an admirable usage 

 of planting beech trees among the oaks. The 

 oaks were first planted out eight by twelve 

 feet apart. In a few years thereafter, when 

 the young oak trees had got well started, the 

 intervening space was planted rather thickly 

 with beech trees, whose rapid growth force the 

 oak trees ever upward, and by the crowding 

 process served to prune off" all lateral limbs. 

 He had observed that the oak forests of Eng- 

 land, planted alone, required a great deal of 

 pruning. 



Forests in Europe belonged mostly to the 

 governments. Some, however, belonged to 

 the dukes, some to church institutions, and 



