REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO GERMANY. 187 
but the wood so produced is only fit for rough work, and is not so 
durable as the close-grown timber. We therefore maintain that 
we should grow our trees, especially spruce and fir, though also 
certain hardwoods, closely when young, so as to produce clean 
stems having timber of good quality, and thus we could compete 
with all classes of foreign timber, instead of, as now, being able to 
compete only against the roughest and cheapest classes of imported 
timber. 
The land throughout the Harz Forest is as a rule very steep and 
rocky; in many places the trees are growing on the bare rock, the 
roots finding nourishment in the clefts and fissures which abound. 
Comparing the land with our hill-sides at home, the writer thinks 
that, in Scotland at least, we have extensive areas of waste land 
much better adapted for timber-growing than the bulk of the forest 
lands of Germany. 
THe ACADEMY OF FORESTRY AT EBERSWALDE AND ITS 
SURROUNDING Woops. 
So far as the Academy is concerned, we had too little time to 
learn much ; but from what we saw and heard there, we would be 
very pleased and greatly benefited if we could enter as students 
for two years to learn the science of Forestry. 
The woods in the neighbourhood are utilised to give the students 
practical lessons in Forestry, and various methods of sowing, plant- 
ing, and felling are adopted. But everything is done, so far as 
the planting and growing is concerned, with a view to produce 
clean marketable timber. We consider the system of planting 
practised here, as elsewhere in Germany, too expensive, and the 
labour employed in preparing the land unnecessary. 
Regarding the system of trapping pine weevil which we were 
shown here, we do not think it could be applied in this country 
unless upon land of a pure sandy nature, such as obtained where 
the traps were in use near Eberswalde. The system referred to, is 
to dig a narrow trench around the patch planted, and to make 
holes about 12 inches deep every 15 yards. The weevils, in 
making their way to the young plantation, fall into this trench, 
and, from the sandy nature of the sides of the trench, they cannot 
climb out. They therefore find their way into the deeper pits, 
from which they are periodically gathered and destroyed. The 
piece of land, after being planted and surrounded by the trench, 
VOL. XIV. PART ITI, Q 
