298 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
was formerly used for pasturage or crops, but much of it has been planted 
in spruce and other trees, as these actually yield higher money returns than 
agricultural crops, owing to the running out of the land. Here I often saw 
many acres of good plow land planted in spruce trees, about one meter apart 
each way, or one by two meters apart. The farms were generally small 
and the farmers poor, and most of them worked their cows and lived in dirty 
villages. In the Black Forest, however, conditions are very different. This 
is a very rough, rocky, mountainous section, with little land that is wel 
adapted to agriculture, and reminded me of portions of New Hampshire 
near the White Mountains. In order to get out the timber very nice roads 
have been built, which has resulted in giving many very beautiful drives and 
has developed it as a summer resort. On this account small hotels, gen- 
erally entitled ‘‘Gasthauses,’ are found at convenient distances and are 
visited by thousands, who go on foot, bicycle or in carriage. The better 
land is almost always used for agriculture, and in forest economies it is 
considered important to develop the agriculture with the forests, so as to 
have work and food for laborers near to the work. On this account we 
occasionally find a piece of land that has been adjudged as more desirable 
for agriculture than for forests, but very likely not because it would yield 
more money in crops than in trees but because in the general system of 
economics it is desirable to mix the two lines. Here we find beautiful swift 
streams that are full of trout (called here ‘‘fourelle’), and many small 
springs and picturesque waterfalls, all of which, by means of paths and seats 
and shelters, are made accessible and attractive to tourists. In other words, 
the section is a great park, which is all the more interesting because of the 
economic features involved in its management. The extensive system of 
planting out of trees is not so much practiced here as in Hessen, owing to 
the fact that “‘stumpage” is not so valuable, and then natural reproduction 
by seed is here more easily obtained. In many wide ranges the cuttings are 
planned so as to secure new reproduction from natural seed production, and 
no planting is done except occasionally to fill up some small gap. Here 
I saw the European balsam, or, silver fir (Abies pectinata), which makes a 
magnificent great tree, and which I had never before seen as a timber tree. 
The hotels here are generally better than in Hessen owing to the large 
number of tourists who are drawn here. The timber is generally cut in 
summer and got out in winter. We had every opportunity afforded us of 
seeing the cutting and the lowering of the logs from the steep hill-sides, 
by means of ropes, and of other matters connected with the forests. As a 
rule, the nursery work did not impress me as being so skillfully done as 
in our best nurseries. The birds are very fond of the spruce seeds, which 
in one nursery were covered with quite a heavy covering of sphagnum moss 
until they began to break ground, to keep off the birds. I think we could, 
perhaps, use this to good advantage, but much care must be taken not to 
remove the covering too quick in dry weather. 
After finishing up our trip in the Black Forest I went to Heidelberg 
for Mrs. Green, and we changed our base of operations to Munich, but on 
the way we stopped for nearly two days near Stuttgart, where we visited 
the oldest agricultural school in Europe. at Hohenheim. About 120 students 
attend here, and the work seemed to be carried on in a practical and sensible 
way. It is beautifully located about ten miles from Stuttgart. In the city of 
Stuttgart is located the private school of Mr. Gaucher, where the students 
