86 Forestry Quarterly. 



Both, thinned and unthinned, quite young stands suffered alike, 

 the former more by breaking of single stems, and the latter by 

 group breakages, especially the stands that had been thinned a 

 year or two before. But, on the contrary, older stands, several 

 times thinned, made the best resistance. Open old beech stands 

 suffered from branch-breaking much more than close stands. 

 Otherwise, even-aged and evenly closed stands suffered more 

 than uneven-aged with slightly open, group-wise distribution and 

 wavy crown profile. 



Stands with tall slender stems and high crowns naturally were 

 more damaged than those in which crown length and shaft were 

 in better proportions, hence, more damage was experienced on 

 good sites than on poor, and of course, on shallow sites uproot- 

 ing was more frequent than on deep soils. 



As regards the causes of the damage the reporter notes that 

 more or less accidental concomitant circumstances influence the 

 effect favorably, such as the fact of more or less developed 

 foliage, different conditions of soil and stands, steepness of slope, 

 and the varying intensity of snowfall and character of snow in 

 different altitudes. 



Especially the quality of snow has more to do with the effect 

 than the quantity. Although in two places cited at 3,000 feet 

 altitude, the snowfall was 24 and 25 inches, there was no dam- 

 age in the existing deciduous woods, while at another locality, 

 in 1,500 to 2,000 feet altitude, with only 10 to 12 inch snowfall 

 the greatest damage was experienced: the specific weight of the 

 snow decreasing very rapidly from lower to higher altitudes, 

 probably from .2 to .8 or .9. In the higher altitudes, to be sure, 

 also the absence of foliage was helpful, while in the lower alti- 

 tudes foliage had already developed, this year unusually luxur- 

 iantly, due to very favorable fall as well as spring weather. 



Mixed forest, groupwise differentiations and age class distri- 

 bution, a regular thinning practice in the dominant, are means to 

 avoid this damage. 



The treatment of damaged stands must, of course, vary ac- 

 cording to their condition, but is altogether not a promising oper- 

 ation, especially in the middle age classes, between 40 and 80 

 years, where underplanting would appear the only method, there 

 being little hope of an unassisted restoration of the crown cover. 



Der Schneefall vom 23-24 Mai, 1908. Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur 

 Forstwesen, 1908, pp. 270-277; 299-302; 318-323. 



