REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1913 67 
by fumes and gases issuing from their chimneys. The state of 
Saxony, in order to avoid further litigation, bought the tract in 
1900 for $125 an acre. 
All sorts of experiments have been tried here to secure a forest 
growth which will not be killed by the fumes. The spruce is suffer- 
ing badly all around here from the work of a weevil, so much so, 
that in one fine pole-wood seven out of every ten trees had been 
removed for this cause alone. Of mixed plantations of conifers and 
hardwoods it appears that here the native birch (Betula 
pendula) is most resistant to the fumes, that Japanese larch 
does better than the German larch, that Scotch pine and Jack pine 
are more resistant than white pine. 
The Antonsthal range, for nearly a quarter of a century in charge 
of Oberforster Gleier, is reached by a short train ride from Schwar- _ 
zenberg. Like most of the Saxon Erzgebirge, the slopes are steep 
and the soil, except in the bottoms, thin and sterile. It is rare to 
find any regeneration of spruce or fir from self-sown seeds, although 
considerable effort has been made to bring about that result. Re- 
planting with 3 year old spruce is the common practice. The spruce 
are raised in shifting nurseries close to where they will be out- 
planted. Transplanting of the spruce before outplanting is ap- 
parently not practised. 
The forests of this region reflect the character of the recent 
economic development of this part of Saxony. The abundant water 
power has encouraged the development of paper pulp mills, with a 
corresponding demand for spruce pulp wood. The result has been 
a rapid transformation of the old stands of large sized spruce and 
fir into spruce forests of short rotations, of 35 to 45 years. This 
means a smaller investment and a correspondingly higher net 
revenue. The pulp mills, of which there are several in the vicinity 
of Antonsthal, derive their supply of pulp wood from the home 
range or from Bohemia by rail. 
The Breitenbrunn range, in charge of Oberforster Thomas, ad- 
joins the Antonsthal range and presents about the same features. 
Spruce is the prevalent species everywhere except upon a few more 
fertile spots where ash, maple and beech are planted. In 1908 this 
range was visited by a particularly severe wind and snow storm 
so that 30,000 cubic meters of timber were broken down by the 
snow and wind. As a consequence the net revenue on this range 
for that year was the highest in Saxony, or 5.1 per cent. 
