THE RELATION OF THE SURFACE COVER AND 

 GROUND LITTER IN A FOREST TO EROSION. 



(As illustrated in a Bavarian Forest). 

 By Maximii^ian J. Gusissnkr, D. Ing 



Toward the latter part of Alay, 1912, I visited in company 

 with others, some of the forests of the Bavarian administrative 

 district "Pfalz" i.e. the Palatinate. This is one of the eight 

 Bavarian administrative (Hstricts, with headquarters at Speyer. 

 About 599,370 acres, approximately 40% of the area, are forested. 

 Of this 300,700 acres, roughly 50%, belong to the State, nearly 

 13% is in private hands and the rest consists of communal in- 

 stitutional and association forests. 



It was our pleasure to have both "Regierungs — und Forstrat" 

 Neblich of Speyer, one of the assistant district foresters and 

 "Forstmeister" Aull, the forest supervisor of Neustadt — Siid to 

 accompany us through the communal forests of the town of St. 

 Martin. 



St. Martin lies in a valley surrounded by steep mountain slopes 

 with grades ranging from 18 to 22%. The forest cover here con- 

 sists largely of dwarfed pine stands (P. silvestris) , upon shallow 

 brown sandstone * soils. 



In the valley agriculture is practised by the peasantry and as 

 is often the case in regions with poor soils the forest litter is 

 locally of great economic importance, but its utilization,combined 

 with the comparatively poor soils and the low precipitation. f 

 has been the cause of much damage. 



In Germany a part of the forest litter is annually utilized. It 

 is either sold at auction to the highest bider or given to persons 

 entitled to this sort of free-use. In some sections of the Pala- 

 tinate each acre of the middle-aged and older stands is raked 

 clear of litter every sixth year. In Baden the litter-gatherers 

 are allowed but 3 days in which to collect the forest litter from 

 the stand to which they are assigned and the use of iron rakes 



* Lower Triassic formation. 

 t 16 to 20 inches per annum. 



