REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I9Q13 53 
noticed that this damage was always slight, for some unknown 
reason, in the vicinity of mature stands. He/has largely obliterated 
that damage by making his cuttings in strips from 75 to 100 feet 
in width, leaving stands more or less mature upon either side, until 
the planted strip has attained a safe size. These strips, in various 
stages of development, present a curious appearance, and they are 
of course on soils that will not yield the luxuriant natural regenera- 
tion that obtains in the compartments nearest the Ysenburg station. 
Under such impoverished soil conditions, the oberforester may 
eventually be forced to adopt the expensive method in vogue at 
Eberstadt. 
At Ysenburg is one of the few, if not the only one, of the strictly 
forest railroads in Germany. It consists of a narrow gauge line 
running from Ysenburg down through the Mitteldick range to the 
river Main. Its poor success is evidence of the uselessness of rail- 
road transportation in a large range where the woods products go 
out in many different directions and which is traversed by excel- 
lent stone roads, as are the Ysenburg and Mitteldick ranges which 
adjoin. 
3 MITTELDICK FORESTS 
The Mitteldick range adjoins the Ysenburg ranges on the west 
and was, originally, under the dominion of the princes of Ysenburg, 
but is now a state (Hesse-Darmstadt) forest. The Scotch pine 
stands here are similar in every respect to those described on the 
Ysenburg range. The object of particular interest on this range are 
the oak stands; remnants of the primeval Rhine valley forests. 
They are maintained today in the form of “shelterwood group 
types of regeneration.” The groups are particularly dense and 
thicketlike, and form an interesting sight, always highest in the 
middle, and spreading toward each other as the seed years and 
soil conditions allow. Forstmeister Hillerich aims to join these 
groups at a time when he shall have finished cutting out the remain- 
ing 15 to 20 old oaks for each acre of the original stand. All 
stages are to be seen from the beginning of tiny groups in the open- 
ings of the medium aged oak forests to large masses of groups now 
fully united and from which the last of the old oaks have been 
removed. 
Where the shelterwood group method of regeneration has not 
been a success, and it is not always a success because of unfavorable 
soil conditions in some places, the Forstmeister has resorted to other 
means of securing an oak stand. One large strip was planted, 16 
