Periodical Literature 385 



snow from February to April was 15 cm less than in the open. 

 On beech stations a decidedly greater depth is found in the 

 stands, which increase steadily until March, when in both field 

 and forest a rapid diminution sets in. 



Die Hohe der Schneedecke im Walde und im Freien. Zeitschrift fiir Forst- 

 und Jagdwesen, October, 1914, pp. 567-572. 



SILVICULTURE, PROTECTION AND EXTENSION 



The question of the reforestation of 

 Troubles waste lands and poor agricultural soil is 



in discussed by Forstmeister Krause from 



Waste another than the usual point of view by 



Land quoting language of the director of the 



Planting geological survey of Hesse expressing a 



doubt whether deforestation of agricultur- 

 ally valuable land should not be the prior consideration for 

 Germany. 



The author recalls that clearing land was the main concern in 

 Frederic the Great's time, but that in the eagerness to settle and 

 colonize the country, instead of happy communities, devastation, 

 impoverished and degenerated settlers were the result, due to 

 settling unsuitable lands. Tout come ches nous! 



The same careless, wasteful treatment which our farmers ac- 

 corded to their woodlot, was in the early part of the nineteenth 

 century accorded to the peasant holdings of forest, and started 

 the waste lands of today, especially in the eastern provinces of 

 Prussia. 



The uncultivated waste area of Germany is estimated at 12.8 

 million acres, of which nearly three quarters are moors, hence 

 only around 3 million acres are uplands. But this is considered 

 greatly under-estimated partly because, as with us, distinction 

 between forest and waste land is difficult to draw, and that as 

 agricultural it will also be noted land that produces a crop only 

 every four to six years. Abandoned farms are growing in num- 

 ber not because of industrial development but because of de- 

 terioration of the soil ; woods or waste can be the only choice and 

 the Prussian government has chosen the former. 



Waste land planting has been carried on with enthusiasm on 

 a grand scale and at first with rosy expectation and apparent 



