Some Aspects of European Forestry. '341 



shoots of fir and beech and larch and scarcely hesitate at the 

 prickly spruce. Daubing the leaders with white-wash or paint 

 or tar, or tieing strips of fluttering white cloth thereto, avails lit- 

 tle. This explains the avidity with which European foresters 

 have seized upon the almost armor-clad Picea sitchensis or Picea 

 parryana. When the trees have outgrown the nipping stage 

 they are subjected to the hazard of being "barked" by the stags. 

 These grip the succulent cortex in their teeth and tear off strip 

 after strip of the bark until, oftentimes, a tree is almost girdled. 

 The authorities are somewhat divergent as to whether this de- 

 struction by game is the result of natural impulse or simply wil- 

 ful. Fortunately our deer are not so inclined — or perhaps they 

 are not numerous enough (for in Europe it is often a question 

 whether the forest or the game plays the more important role.) 

 The damage is also accentuated wherever there are large areas 

 of even-aged young growth — more especially of artificial origin: 

 for the natural seedling, especially in Selection Forest, seems 

 to escape. The deer apparently like to concentrate their browsing. 

 Cattle also browse on seedlings but their chief damage is by 

 tramping. To prevent this, brush barricades are built across 

 cattle trails which lead over cutting areas undergoing regeneration- 

 Such are the natural conditions in the Bavarian Alps. The 

 methods of management have necessarily been adapted to meet 

 them. The Bavarian forester distinguishes three forest zones : 



(i) Protection Forest, i.e. the highest elevations consisting 

 in part of entirely untimbered, barren areas, in part of so-called 

 Alpine forests composed of stunted, irregularly scattered, limby, 

 decadent spruce, crippled, old firs, Pinus cembra, and Mountain 

 Ash. 



The marketing of this material is both prohibitively expensive, 

 and usually impossible without damage to the lower lying stands. 

 Therefore this zone is generally segregated as Alpine reserves 

 and no cutting is allowed there. Furthermore, just below these 

 unproductive areas a corresponding belt of forest is kept intact 

 in order to prevent an increase in the barren areas. 



(2) Selection Forest, i.e. the zone next below which because 

 of its steepness and scanty cover as well as the uncertainty and 

 expense of regeneration (it is a well known fact that in the Alps 

 the difficulty of regeneration increases with the elevation partly 



