438 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bttter in every respect. In Saxony a better price is obtained for 

 spruce wood than for pine, •which is quite the reverse of what 

 obtains in Prussia. The spruce timber finds its chief outlet 

 in the nanufacture of wood-pulp, which is a large and growing 

 industry in Germany. 



At Tharandt, near Dresden, I visited the Forest Academy. 

 This college, the first of its kind in Germany, was founded by 

 Cotta in 1804. The forest garden, under the charge of the noted 

 botanist, Professor Nobbe, dates back to the foundation of the 

 academy. For the last thirty years Professor Nobbe has given 

 his closest attention to the collection of plants and their systematic 

 arrangement over the extensive grounds. It is without doubt the 

 finest collection in Germany, and contains upwards of seventeen 

 hundred distinct species of trees and shrubs. 



Silesia. 



For the practical study of forest management, one cannot find 

 a more suitable district than that of Allersdorf, in the Riesen 

 Gebirge. There the steep hill-sides of broken porphyry rock would 

 soon become barren " scree " land, were it not that the covering of 

 forest binds the soil together and renders it fertile. The climate is 

 harsh : in summer there is much rain, in winter much wind and snow. 

 Snow-break does more or less injury every year, and sometimes 

 serious damage is done, especially in woods that have been recently 

 thinned. The species grown are exclusively coniferous, consisting 

 of spruce, silver fir, larch, and Scots pine ; but the two first men- 

 tioned predominate. Spruce and silver fir form woods in even- 

 aged mixture together, and also in pure crops. Except on south 

 slopes which are too dry, the silver fir successfully restocks the 

 ground naturally. It is worked on a rotation of 100 years, during 

 the last period of which severe thinnings take place which admit 

 light to the forest floor, and allow the trees that remain to increase 

 in diameter. Planting has always to be resorted to in the case of 

 spruce, transplants being inserted about 4 feet apart. The woods are 

 clear-felled; but in order to minimise the danger from erosion, only 

 narrow strips are undertaken at a time, and the stumps that would 

 otherwise be extracted are allowed to remain to hold the soil 

 together. Compartments of the forest are divided into a number 

 of cutting-sections, each of which is treated as a separate unit. 

 As a precaution against attack by pine weevil, fellings do not take 



