Some Aspects of European Forestry. 139 



standpoint. Pure stands are much easier and cheaper to manage 

 and to market. However, the tremendous insect scourge in 1900 

 drove home the vital fact that the occasional stands of hardwoods 

 in mixture with pine alone prevented the total destruction of the 

 pine. 



The best present practice aims ttr cut in small strips — leaving 

 occasional beech, juniper, and other hardwoods, and natural seed- 

 lings of pine. The beech and other hardwoods do not impede the 

 growth of the young pines — in fact, they favor it by protectmg it 

 in earlier years, and when, as is almost invariably the case, the 

 pine overtops them, they make for better stems, clearer boles, and 

 maintain the soil in good condition. The mature stand of to-day 

 is essentially two-storied; pines dominating, hardwoods forming 

 the lower story with commonly a quantity of advance repro- 

 duction of hardwoods (chiefly beech) on the ground. In this 

 method, the "left over" natural seedlings of pine often develop 

 into "Wolf trees" whereupon they are removed in subsequent 

 thinnings. The juniper, of course, becomes suppressed, since it 

 seldom attains a height of over ten feet. 



It should be noted that occasional thrifty, windfirm pines are 

 left over a rotation in order to furnish timber of larger dimen- 

 sions. However, the stripwise cutting areas are not laid out 

 arbitrarily, but adapted to the conformation of the ground. 



The advantages of these mixed stands, both in quality and 

 quantity of the pine produced, are very striking — no less striking 

 is the much better condition of the soil and the greater freedom 

 from fungus and insect attacks. It is the result of recognizing 

 the fact that the forest of Prussia is not of pine alone, but is a 

 family of species, big and little. 



Despite Borggreve's polemics in favor of natural regeneration 

 by the shelterwood method and Wagner's later arguments for 

 natural regeneration by narrow selection cut strips,* the bulk of 

 the pine management of yesterday, to-day, and probably of to-mor- 

 row too, depends on artificial reproduction of the stand. The 

 reason lies in the quicker, more uniform results of artificial re- 

 generation, and an often sod-bound soil. The relatively low cost 

 of labor also comes into play. 



*"Blendersaumschlag" as described in C. Wap^ner's "Die Grundlagen der 

 Raumlichen Ordnung im Walde." 2d Edition, Ttibingen, 191 1. See also — 

 Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters. Vol. 7, No. 2, "Border 

 Cuttings." 



