322 Forestry Quarterly. 



SOIL, WATER, AND CLIMATE. 



During the summer seasons of 1891 and 

 Water .Contents 1895 series of soil-moisture determinations 

 in were made in the neighborhood of Ebers- 



Forest Soils. walde. These experiments, Ramann re- 



ports, were made to determine the average 

 water content of different sorts of soils, and, secondly, the varia- 

 tions arising from different methods of regeneration. As always 

 during the early stages of any study, unsuspected factors are dis- 

 covered and new problems present themselves for solution. The 

 purely local influences and the occurrence of wet and dry years 

 contributed most toward rendering the results indecisive. Local 

 factors obscure differences due to different degrees of thinning in 

 growing stands, and dry years serve to emphasize difference in site, 

 which wet seasons conceal. 



The soil nearest the surface is not taken into account in draw- 

 ing conclusions, for obviously this is too easily influenced by changes 

 in the weather. The conclusions drawn are, for the sandy soil in 

 question, as follows : 



Unless decayed humus is present longer the effects of ^^lowing 

 disappear in the fourth j^ear. 



Whether, in reproducing by the strip method, the direction in 

 which strips run (east and west, or north and south) makes any 

 difference in the amount of water at the disposal of the young 

 stand, the experiments failed to determine, but they did show that 

 seedlings in openings have more soil moisture at their disposal than 

 seedlings under a nurse stand. An extreme condition is noted in 

 an old beech stand, which was considerably drier than a heavily 

 sodded clearing, especially below 25 cm. "Other things being equal, 

 the soil under a mature stand is drier than bare soil in almost every 

 case, if we leave the surface out of the reckoning." Repeatedly 

 during the work, Heyer's assertion that the quality of site is de- 

 pendent solely on the amount of water available was shown to be 

 untenable. Soils equally moist maj^ bear very different stands and 

 soils of widely differing water content may belong to the same site 

 class. 



Even moderate cultivation increases the amount of water avail- 

 able in the soil by preventing evaporation, and the intenser the 

 cultivation the more marked the results. These results appear only 



