PURE FORESTS AND MIXED FORESTS. 23 



ere this ceased to exist, and you will ask : How is the beech wood 

 utilised ? The oak sells at two to three shillings per cubic foot, 

 while the beech only fetches two to three pence. And it would 

 not even sell a*t this rate if large factories had not been established 

 near the Spessart, in which the beech wood is subjected to dry 

 distillation. We imagine that the vinegar we have on our table 

 is made at the brewery, or, better still, is from the vineyard. No 

 such thing ! It is all produced by the dry distillation of beech 

 wood in many parts of Germany. Do not, however, please 

 forget that the excellent quality of the Spessart oak timber is due 

 to a great extent to the presence of the beech in the same forests. 



There is a great variety of mixed woods. First, woods which 

 consist of trees which behave differently with regard to light, 

 such as oak and beech, Scots pine and beech, and to these I will 

 add oak and silver fir. On the western edge of the Schwarzwald 

 are magnificent woods, in which oak forms the ujiper and silver 

 fir the lower story. You ask how is the silver fir utilised 1 We 

 expect that the paper-pulp manufacturers will come to our aid, 

 and will take the poles of the silver fir which form the under 

 wood, so that afterwards the oak may be regenerated naturally 

 without much expense. We, secondly, have mixed woods where 

 the trees composing them are different in a different respect. 

 You know that the spruce is very shallow-rooted. Its roots are 

 near the surface, and that explains the great liability of pure 

 Spruce foi'ests to be thrown down by the wind. You also know 

 that the Scots pine sends its roots much deeper down, and there- 

 fore it has been found that mixed woods of spruce and Scots pine 

 are in places — of course the soil must be suitable — excellent, 

 because, while the spruce gets its nourishment from the surface 

 layer of soil, the Scots pine sends its roots deeper down. 



You will ask how pure woods of oak and of Scots pine may be 

 converted into mixed woods. An excellent system has been 

 gradually developed in Germany. When the wood is in the stage 

 of large poles, and about forty years old, a heavy thinning is made, 

 and then an underwood of the beech is introduced by sowing or 

 planting. The effect of this operation is most beneficial. Under 

 the shade of the beech the ground is kept moist and loose, and is 

 fertilised by the fall of the beech leaves. The effect of this, as 

 well as of the thinning, is to stimulate the growth of the oak and 

 Scots pine. Heavy and valuable timber is thus produced in less 

 time than could otherwise be possible. 



