148 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
stunted form, and it may be said to reach its maximum elevation 
at about 3300 feet. The other trees of the Upper Harz are not 
numerous ; but below 1600 feet a considerable area is occupied by 
woods of beech, and the same tree is met with to a greater or less 
extent in mixture with the spruce up to 2300 feet. A few oaks, 
birches, and alders occur naturally in the few places that suit 
their growth. Sycamores and rowans are the species usually 
employed for planting along avenues and roads. The yew, at one 
time very common in the Harz, has now entirely disappeared. So 
far as pure woods are concerned, the following figures show the 
area occupied by the principal trees :— 
Spruce, ., : . : > 103,590 acres, 
Beech, = : : : 2° "28;600" 3 
Oaks - : . : : 5;a60! 9 5 
Alder and Bireh, . . . : IDO: 
The woods in this district suffer to a very serious extent from 
snow-breaking, and especially spruce woods at an elevation of 
1200 to 2000 feet. If the snow falls in large flakes, and especially 
if rather damp, it accumulates on the crowns of the trees in such 
quantities as sometimes to break down and completely destroy 
whole forests. In 1883, when the last severe visitation of this 
kind occurred, nearly 25,000,000 eubic feet of wood was broken 
down in this district alone, the whole of the damage being done 
in a few hours. This calamity is accountable for the scarcity of 
old trees, and for the comparative absence of close pole-woods, 
and the leaderless condition of many of the trees is also to be 
attributed to this cause. 
Storms, on the whole, do comparatively little damage in this 
district ; even the tornado of February 12, 1894, was accountable 
for but 730,000 cubic feet of blown timber, which is equal to about 
5} cubic feet per acre. 
The pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) is found to be best combated 
by stubbing out the stools soon after the trees are felled. Bark 
beetles (Scolytide) are kept in check by peeling the trees as soon 
as felled, by removing all dead and unhealthy trees in the thinnings, 
and by laying down “catch trees” in suspected localities. 
A much more serious matter is the peeling and nibbling of 
young trees by deer. Whereas damage by nibbling the branches 
is chiefly confined to the places where the deer congregate in 
spring, there is scarcely a spruce tree in the whole district that 
does not show bark wounds caused by these animals. In 1892 
the Upper Harz yielded 2299 red deer and 772 roe deer; but last 
season the numbers were much smaller, the severe winter having 
killed the animals by hundreds. The red stag of this district seldom 
