A VISIT TO THE THURINGIAN FOREST. : 105 
IX. A Visit to the Thuringian Forest, within the Duchy of 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Germany. By Joun Micuig, Forester, 
Balmoral. 
Much has been said of late years in laudatory terms about Con- 
tinental forestry—more particularly that of Germany and France 
—recommending its adoption in the British Isles. Some favour 
the adeption of the Continental system in its administrative, 
scientific, and practical entirety, while others hold that although 
it could not be carried out as a whole, there are certain parts 
which might be imitated with great advantage to forestry in 
this country. 
My purpose at the present time is, not to extol the Continental 
methods of sylviculture, nor to attempt to depreciate them—for 
my knowledge of them is by far too meagre for such a task—but 
to put before you in concise form what of the practical part of 
German forestry I had the privilege of seeing last year; when, 
through the goodness and by the command of the august patron 
of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, Her Most Gracious 
Majesty the Queen, and by the kindness of His Royal Highness 
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, I was enabled to visit the 
Thuringer Wald. 
To begin with, I shall briefly go over the route taken :— 
Embarking at Dover on the evening of lst August and landing 
at Ostend, my line lay through Belgium vzd@ Brussels to Herbesthal, 
where the action of the Customs’ officers reminded one that 
the German frontier was at hand, 
By this time the British forester will have received some 
slight impressions from the views obtained through the windows 
of a railway carriage. The surface is flat or gently undulating, 
while the trees scattered over it are very tall. There is no sign 
of the common English practice of pollarding, but, on the contrary, 
periodical pruning of the lower side branches (clearing them off) 
close to the stem to encourage length and cleanness of bole is 
the rule, more or less. The side or lower branches before 
' pruning are never allowed to develop to any great size, and thus 
the individual tree is prevented from occupying more than the 
least possible space of ground. I had seen no woods of important 
extent up to this point, but I had noticed that every available 
spect unoccupied by agricultural or other crops sustained its tree 
