REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO GERMANY. 185 
woods, the more so when we saw no appearance of Lares or 
rabbits, and were told that they would not tolerate them on any 
account. We presume the only reason is that the deer afford sport 
for the State foresters or private owners, as the case may be; and 
the trees must be to a certain extent sacrificed for this purpose. 
But after allowing for such damage, and considering the expensive 
mode of planting and the money paid to forest officers, the Germans 
make their woods pay a good yearly rent per acre; and what the 
Germans can do surely we can do. We have a better soil in our 
waste lands than the Germans have, and as good a climate for 
timber-growing. 
THE Upper Harz. 
This district contains over 130,000 acres of timber, about 
103,000 acres being spruce, the remainder, grown upon the better 
class of land near the base of the mountains, being beech and 
oak. 
The matured spruce trees are as a rule very fine, long, straight, 
clean-grown trees, and when manufactured into battens and boards, 
produce superior-looking goods. In and near the Harz Forest 
many very elegant summer residences for visitors are built of 
spruce, and roofed with slate—that is to say, the framing and 
walls are wood—and they are in many cases artistically finished 
and painted outside. 
Upon examining some of the battens and boards turned out from 
the saw-mills, we were struck with the very small appearance of 
warping shown in the sawn goods as compared with what would be 
the case in the same quantity of home-grown spruce or Scots fir if 
sawn in the same way. We have no doubt this is to be accounted 
for by the trees in Germany being grown so close that the sun’s 
rays do not directly affect the stems, and in this way the trees are 
prevented from having what our saw-miller’s term a hard side; and 
the layers of wood are more evenly put on than in our thin home- 
grown woods. We are of opinion that we over-thin our woods 
before the final clearing takes place, thereby exposing the stems of 
the trees to the sun’s rays on the side, or half of the bole, facing 
the south, and causing a larger growth of timber upon that side, 
which is harder than that formed on the north side of the tree. 
When such trees are sawn up, the battens warp as they leave 
the saw, as if the hard side which faced the sun, expanded, or the 
