riCRIODICAL LITKRATURE ( •-)•) 



which sometimes have a profit but more often pay for the expenses 

 incurred or at least reduce them to such an extent that afforestation 

 is made under greatly improved conditions at low cost. 



When agriculture and forestry share between them the area of the 

 estate, the parts are assigned to forestry that are not suited for per- 

 manent cropping. The aim of "preculture" is to destroy the natural 

 vegetation covering the land, which instead of being a hindrance, is 

 turned to good account by adding to the humus ; to break up and 

 aerate the soil and insure drainage ; to ameliorate the soil and add to 

 its available mineral nutrients; to improve the physical condition by 

 increasing its power to hold water; to enrich it with available nitrogen 

 and add to its bacterial flora ; to make the agricultural crop which 

 follows the culture pay for the expenses ; and to provide an acceptable 

 soil in which to plant trees at a minimum of expense and with a 

 maximum percentage of growth. 



Moreover as the planting site is clear, direct seeding often can be 

 employed. 



In the reviewer's opinion many poor lands in New England that 

 have been long abandoned for agriculture might advantageously be 

 brought under forest crops by "precultures." Where the soil is hard, 

 compact, and covered with a dense growth of perennial herbage were 

 it broken up and cultivated, the agricultural crops might go a long 

 way in paying for the cost and the forest plantation could be made 

 later at half the cost and with far greater assurance of success. 



J. W. T. 



Vendelmans, Henry. Forestry by Precultures, Quarterly Journal of Forestry, 

 Vol. XIX, No. 3, pp. 185-190, July, 1920. 



Eberhard describes the develoi)ment of a silvi- 

 Tcchniquc cultural systems, beginning with the primitive 



of Natural irregular selection cutting. ITundeshagen de- 



Reproduction veloped the shelterwood system (Dunkelschlag- 

 betrieb) with preliminary seed cuttings, later cut- 

 tings to give light for the seedlings, and final removal cuttings after 

 the reproduction is well established and able to thrive in the open. 

 Natural reproduction was relied on almost entirely as cheaper and 

 more satisfactory than artificial restocking. After Hunde.shagen, silvi- 

 culturists gradually got away from the idea of natural restocking, 

 and adopte<l dear cutting with piw"ting. Gayer and H. Afayer <le- 



