I40 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tops of the trees, but the leaves there assimilate enough food 

 to keep the trees growing on in height. Lower branches, how- 

 ever, are bereft of light, and gradually wilt, die, and drop off, 

 leaving the young stems free from knots. All the parts — leaves, 

 twigs, etc. — which fall from the trees add organic matter to 

 the soil. Moreover, in the shade of the close cover this litter 

 turns into the best vegetable mould or humus. 



With only very light thinnings every few years, the pines may 

 grow to maturity quite unmixed with any other species. On the 

 other hand, a fairly severe thinning may be made about the 

 middle of the rotation period, when beech, silver fir, spruce, 

 or other shade-bearer is introduced for the better protection 

 of the soil. Beech very often finds its way in by natural means, 

 through the conveyance of seed by birds. Beech is the best 

 tree for this purpose, as its leaves, which are chemically rich 

 and very abundant, shelter and enrich the soil. One of the 

 woods near Eberswalde shows this system well. The Scots 

 pine which formed the original crop are now no years old; 

 beech occurs below and between the pine, but they are much 

 younger, being only 50 years old. This shows that the pine 

 were 60 years of age when they were underplanted with beech. 

 The intention is to allow the wood to stand for 30 years longer, 

 when a clear-felling will be made, and the ground restocked. 



The Weymouth pine {Finus Strobus) is receiving more atten- 

 tion now in Germany, because it grows rapidly, especially where 

 peat is present in the soil. The timber is, of course, the same 

 as the " yellow " pine timber so largely imported from America, 

 and the Germans have realised that, as the American supply 

 is rapidly becoming exhausted, they had better produce it them- 

 selves. The Weymouth pine is able to bear more shade than 

 the Scots pine, and this allows of a larger crop being obtained, 

 because the individual trees stand more closely together to an 

 advanced age. In the Spessart, I saw one of the few ripe woods 

 of Weymouth pine in Germany. The plantation was 95 years 

 of age, and spruce occurred along with the pine. It was 

 a remarkably fine wood, with the trees tall, clean, and cylindrical, 

 and the timber of close, even texture. 



The Oak. 



The Germans grow their oak woods much more densely than 

 we do ; and here I would point out a change which has quite 



