Forest Types of Baden. 451 



dry on these low sandstone hills for this species, and Silver Fir 

 is undoubtedly the most suitable coniferous species to plant here. 



We have natural regeneration of Beech under the shelterwood 

 system and the fail places are filled up with conifers whilst a few 

 species are brought in by natural regeneration. 



The natural regeneration of Beech is too prolific and more 

 conifers should be planted, but the money available for this pur- 

 pose is not always forthcoming and cultures of Silver Fir are 

 expensive. 



Thinnings, which have been sadly neglected up till now, should 

 be made regularly and the present stands underplanted with 

 Beech. In fact the rules which apply to the Bauland when con- 

 verted into High Forest are equally applicable to this type, except 

 that these hills should produce chiefly Silver Fir and Beech. 

 Spruce and Oak are generally not suitable whilst the elevation is 

 still too low to exclude snow breakage from Scotch Pine stands, 

 which but for this disadvantage would do well here especially 

 when admixed with Beech. 



7. The Silver Fir Forests of the Black Forest. Silver Fir is 

 the most characteristic species of the Black Forest though Spruce 

 is the prevailing species in the higher altitudes and to the East. 



The formation in the Northern part of this territory is granite 

 with standstone at the higher elevations, and in the Southern part 

 Graywacke above and Gneiss in the lower part. The elevation 

 runs from 320 to 1499 meters or right up to and beyond timber 

 limit. This limit is considerably lower in the Northern Black 

 Forest (1,200 meters) than in the Southern where the limit is as 

 high as 1,400 meters (4,670 feet). 



We will here speak only of those forests in which Silver Fir 

 prevails. The optimum for this species is found at an altitude of 

 300-700 meters. Above that line it is seldom found in pure stands 

 but in the Northern territory' is mixed with Beech and Spruce, 

 and in the Southern with Beech but no Spruce. It prefers the 

 southern and western aspects of the mountains, and on the eastern 

 slopes and at high altitudes we find the pure Spruce forests of 

 which we will speak later. On the southern aspects at low alti- 

 tudes we find the Silver Fir mixed with Oak especially in the 

 southern territory. 



The Silver Fir is a very valuable timber tree, producing nearly 



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