PERIODICAL LITKRATURE 603 



are detached at the base of some annual shoot up to ten years old. One 

 can count sometimes ten branchlets to the square yard, and it is calcu- 

 lated that about i per cent of the foliage twigs is thus prematurely lost. 

 The infection takes place in summer on the unlignified shoot. The 

 mycelium enters the corky and surface layers of the wood, interfering 

 with the water supply, turns the color of the wood brown, dries it out, 

 and finally kills the twigs and gives a stagheaded appearance to the tree. 

 It attacks oaks from 50 to 150 }ears on all sites and reduces at least 

 their increment. It is suggested that it also prepares the field for insect 

 development. Xo remedy is known. 



Dcgats causes anx chcncs l^ar le cliaiiipiyiion Diaporta taleola Till. Journal 

 Forestier Suisse, January, 1918, pp. 1-3. 



In connection with the essay on fir forest man- 

 Spriice agement. by Gazin. printed in a previous issue 



Management of the present volume of the Journal, it is of 

 in interest to brief the discussion on the silviculture 



France of Norway spruce in association with fir in the 



same mountains ( Vosges) by E. Mer. Naturally 

 this spruce occurs here generally only above the altitudinal limit of fir 

 (3,000 to 3.500 feet), with the exception of certain specially humid 

 valleys ; centenarians are here found covering the summits of moun- 

 tains up to 4,000 feet, mixed with undersized fir and broadleaf species. 

 beech, maple, sycamore, mountain ash, etc.. which also constitute the 

 scrubby timberline forest. Elsewhere the spruce was only artificially 

 introduced 60 to 75 years ago and a few older stands by planting or 

 sowing on old pastures, mostly in pure stands. Mer discusses the ex- 

 periences with such plantations on one of the national forests of which 

 he became charged in 1875. Sowing in furrows across the slopes, which 

 had been the practice, brought about an uneven distribution of seed, 

 so that the sowing was too dense in spots, too open in other spots, and 

 hence of very uneven growth in crowded and open stands, mostly of 

 small diamieter, 3 to 4 inches, with small crowns, only here and there 

 of double the dimensions. A variety of soil and exposure iiroduced, 

 of course, also varied results, north slopes and deep soils showing the 

 better development than thin soils and south aspects. In (KXMsional 

 depressions, where water could collect, a very satisfactory increment 

 had taken ])lace. especially in height, due to the fact that here dominant 

 growth developed and the subdominant had spontaneously disaj^peared 

 1)\- wind, snow, or shading:, or else having- been cnl. This suggests that 



