3i6 Forestry Quarterly. 



course and the facts at hand were interpreted as favorable. Prac- 

 tical experience in handling such stands on poor, shallow soils has 

 shown that they do not behave as simply as anticipated and sil- 

 vical studies have revealed some reasons for such behavior. 



Spruce stands have proven to be windfirm only on exceptional 

 soils and are always particularly susceptible to snowbreak. Root 

 rot attacks many trees and at times all the trees on a large area 

 are more or less rotten at the stump. The nun is by far the most 

 serious enemy attacking spruce stands. Losses from this moth 

 have been enormous and the most recent attacks (in 1909) have 

 been only a little less disastrous than those of fifty years ago. 

 But the most serious indictments against spruce stands is that 

 they do not conserve and improve the soil but, by permitting the 

 formation of a dense, dry duff, prevent water and air from reach- 

 ing the soil so that it dries out and is compacted. The weathering 

 of the rocks stops and the soil does not become richer in plant 

 food as it should. 



This undesirable soil condition has been remedied by hoeing up 

 the duff every eight or ten years and by digging trenches to admit 

 water and air to the mineral soil. A better course is to prevent 

 the formation of duff by mixing beech in the spruce stands. 

 Beech roots deeper and makes the stand windfirm, while its roots 

 do not compete with those of the spruce; it carries more rain 

 water into the soil and carries it deeper. Its chief function, how- 

 ever, is to furnish a coarser straw to the litter on the ground and, 

 by holding it open to the percolation of rain water, to prevent the 

 formation of duff. The mixture of the species in the stand must 

 be designed to affect this end. 



After studying the opinions held and the practices recommended 

 by other authors, viz : Gayer, Weinkauff, Wagner, Salle and some 

 Bavarian working plans, a method of procedure is formulated 

 which for mature beech stands that can be naturally regenerated 

 is as follows : 



Fir is planted under the mature stand in favorable spots, four- 

 year transplants being used. With the first seed year the litter is 

 worked up and the ground put in condition to insure proper set- 

 ting of the new stand. The parent stand is lightly thinned in the 

 following winter. Thinnings are made at intervals during the 

 next fifteen years until the whole mature stand is removed and a 

 young growth of beech with a mixture of fir covers the ground. 



