STATE FORESTS OF PRUSSIA. 143 
The whole forest area is subdivided by rides (23 feet or 164 feet 
wide) into rectangular sections of about 35 acres. These sections 
are one and a half times as long as broad, the rides running out 
to the main roads, and facilitating the transport of the forest 
produce. 
The bulk of the planting has been done with Scots firs and 
spruces, in the proportions of three or four of the former to one 
of the latter. One-year-old Scots firs and two-year-old spruces 
were employed, and blanks were filled up with larger specimens 
of these trees, including a few Weymouth pines, larches, and 
Douglas firs. On about 750 acres it has been found possible to 
introduce oaks as the principal species. The cost of planting 
about 5000 seedling Scots firs and spruces per acre (including 
beating up blanks for three or four seasons) has been found, in a 
large number of cases where the figures are available, to average 
46s. per acre. A seeding of about 34 lbs. Scots fir, 25 lbs. spruce, 
and 12 lbs. larch seed per acre (including supplementary seeds for 
a year or two), is found to cost about 3s. per acre less. 
All the rides are bordered with stripes of hardwoods, in order 
_ to form some protection against fire.t For this purpose oak and 
birch are chiefly employed, the latter being stripped periodically 
to provide material for brooms, and also to admit of the oaks 
getting up. 
In order to determine the effects of forests on the climate, it was 
resolved in 1881 to erect, at a cost of £790, two meteorological 
observation stations, the one in the forest and the other in the 
open country adjoining, the latter being 311 feet above sea-level. 
Readings are taken daily at 8 A.M. and 2 P.M., and these are sent 
on to Eberswalde for comparison with the records of the other 
fifteen forestal meteorological stations of Prussia. 
A small stream which flows through the estate has been dammed 
at one point and converted into a pond of some 60 acres, the 
fishing of which is let for £25 a year. 
THE STATE FOREST OF LAUENAU. 
30th July. 
This forest occupies a spur of a range of low hills called the 
Deister, which attain a maximum elevation of 1300 feet. The 
steep south-west slope consists of highly calcareous soil, belonging 
1 There is a fire watch-tower near the station, from which a look-out is kept at 
certain seasons, 
