REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 yal 
as coppice under standards, the coppice being treated in rotations 
of 32 years, and consisting of hornbeam, basswood, birch, oak and 
beech. The white oaks and beech were the standards for the former 
coppice and there is still left an enormous number of these prime 
white oaks, which are being gradually cut. 
The Gramschatz administration receives for its timber, prices 
ranging from $15 to $100 a cubic meter, the latter price for the 
best veneer oak. The gross receipts obtained at the auctions of 
timber aggregate over $60,000 a year for this range. 
The coppice under standards system began in 1806, when the 
archbishop was deprived of his possessions, which were then made 
over to the “ Reichsverweser.” In 1814 the lands were turned over 
to the'kingdom of Bavaria, which continued to cut down the coppice 
woods and to replace them by a high forest. The pole woods of 
beech, now over 90 years old, are particularly fine, excelling in 
straight trunks and rapid growth. The heavy mast years for oak 
which occurred in 1897 and in 1goo were taken advantage of for the 
planting of large areas to oak. There is probably nowhere in 
Germany, unless it be in the Spassart region famous for its oaks, 
a better second growth of oak than in the eastern part of the 
Gramschatz forest. The oak timber of the Gramschatz forests is 
but little inferior in quality to that of the more famed Spessarts, 
where several giants of the primeval forest still exist (plate 17). 
The last working plan advanced has been a return to the coppice 
system. Asa matter of fact, however, the coppice system here has 
been very much overdone and it is noteworthy that the management 
has agreed to reproduce hornbeam, having complained so much of 
the plague of mice, which has caused wholesale destruction of the 
hornbeam and also of basswood and beech, while oak remains intact. 
The resultant usurpation of the weeds and grasses make it necessary 
to obtain regeneration from self-sown seeds of hornbeam or beech 
and to adopt the planting of spruce. The spruce seems to do 
particularly well. A plantation of spruce 55 years old, planted 
originally in alternation with elm, is as fine a stand of spruce as 
obtains anywhere in Germany. The beech mast of 1909 has been 
spoiled by a plague of black snails which are said to feed at night, 
defoliating the beech seedlings absolutely. 
Such portions of the range as are not allotted to oak are regener- 
ated in beech and hornbeam, which are meant to make up two-thirds 
of the growing stock. The remainder consists of pine and spruce, 
planted, or, in the case of pine, raised from seed. In addition to 
these, larch is being planted on a larger scale than formerly. 
