A VISIT TO PR SCHLICH'S FORESTS AT MIRWART. 241 



XVIII. A Visit to Br Schlictia Forests at Mirwart. 

 By Colonel F. Bailey. 



The following notes, made by me during a visit paid in the 

 spring of 1898 to Dr Schlich's estate of Mirwart, in the Belgian 

 Ardennes, may, I hope, interest readers of the Transactions. 

 Mirwart lies on the main line of railway running between 

 Brussels and Metz, Much of this hilly region is still under 

 forest, of which 2844 acres belong to the estate. The woods, at 

 an elevation ranging from 900 to 1300 feet above sea-level, 

 occupy a series of undulating hills -with rounded tops, which are 

 frequently extended into plateaux. The rock is clay slate. The 

 soil is for the most part a somewhat stiff loam, but clay is found 

 in some places ; the soil is shallow, rocky, or stony on southern 

 aspects, but elsewhere it is of good depth. The mean annual 

 rainfall is from 35 to 40 inches. 



The growing stock is constituted as follows : — 60 acres of 

 oak coppice, which is to undergo conversion into high forest ; 

 100 acres of Scots pine, from fifteen to thirty years old ; and the 

 remainder, 2681 acres, carrying crops of beech and oak, generally 

 mixed with a small proportion of hornbeam, sycamore and 

 Norway maple. About 2000 acres of the last-named area have 

 been under-planted with spruce, except in the most choice 

 localities, where either acorns have been dibbled in or one-year- 

 old oak seedlings have been planted to the number of 8000 to 

 the acre. 



Grand Campe. 



A forest of beech, oak, and other hardwood trees of all ages, 

 the remnant of a forest formerly worked on the " Selection " 

 system. The stock had been very irregular; and though in a 

 few places it was sufficient, the crop was for the most part far 

 too thin, yielding an annual increment of perhaps not more than 

 15 to 20 cubic feet per acre, instead of 100 cubic feet, as it should 

 have done. It was desired to remedy this state of things, and 

 to obtain a full increment from the soil by under-planting with 

 spruce, to be grown for pit-props. But notwithstanding the 

 general deficiency in the stock, some thinning had to be done 

 in places in order to permit the introduction of the spruce ; and 

 a secondary object of this treatment was to realise the value of 

 the trees to be thus taken out. 



