Some Aspects of European Forestry. 473 



cially in Eastern Austria has been opened up only in the last 

 few decades ; virgin timber is still being cut in the Carpathians. 

 Not for the needs of the population — but to supply the world 

 markets have these remote stands been made accessible. 



There has never been a general timber famine in Austria, such 

 as that which threatened Germany before the advent of railroads 

 and gave birth to the science of forestry. Austrian forestry is an 

 off-shoot from the German parent stem, but it has developed 

 along its own lines, solving the problems peculiar to the coun- 

 try. It is the very variety of these problems which makes their 

 methods of solution particularly instructive. The small private 

 owner is still practicing his so-called selection fellings (usually 

 over-drawing his forest bank account) or, most fatal improve- 

 ment, is cutting clear on large areas with indifferent restocking 

 thereof, despite the mandates of the law that cut-over areas must 

 be adequately restocked within a certain period of years. Dis- 

 regarding these barbaric practices and turning to the methods 

 pursued on government forests and on the large private hold- 

 ings, these may be summarized as follows : 



The selection forest is found intermediate between the pro- 

 tective zone (upper slopes) and the zone of greatest utilization. 

 Cutting must be careful, in order not to invite disaster, and con- 

 fined to the largest trees, because these alone are profitably mer- 

 chantable at such elevations. In general the treatment is similar 

 to that described for Bavaria in the preceding Article VII of 

 this series. The selection forest begins at an average elevation 

 of 4,500 feet in the limestone formation, 5,000 feet in the archaic 

 ranges, and is always coniferous. 



Not only do the difficulties of natural regeneration increase 

 markedly with the elevation, but it must also be remembered that 

 despite its approximation of nature's methods, the regeneration of 

 all-aged selection forests requires much more care and knowledge 

 of natural laws than does the regeneration of even-aged high for- 

 est ; for in the selection forest all individuals of seed-bearing age, 

 be they young or old, desirable or undesirable as trees or as 

 species, take part in the process of regeneration. Every effort is 

 made, therefore, to have only the mature, thrifty trees take part 

 in the re-seeding; the stand is kept as dark as possible, not only 

 to furnish the maximum protection, but also to keep the younger 



