152 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOITISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



then only by rotation. Thus CYery wood is open once every 

 8 or 12 years, but for 10 years before regeneration the right 

 remains in abeyance. (/) They are entitled to " wind-falls " — 

 that is, in every circle of 50 yards of wind-blown trees, the 

 people get 30 cubic feet of wood. 



From the above concessions to the peasants, any thinnings 

 that are made in the w'ood of the sizes specified must remain on 

 the ground for them to lift at their convenience. Several saw- 

 mills are situated at regular intervals round the forest, and the 

 fellings are made with a view of keeping these regularly 

 employed, so that the labourers may rely upon the industry 

 year in, year out. The aim of the management is to provide a 

 sustained yield of oak of considerable size. Hence the rotation 

 is fixed for the oak at 300 years, beech at 120 years, and Scots 

 pine at 72 to 120 years. The rotations are all (as nearly as 

 possible) multiples of 24 years. The oak woods are of four 

 classes — (i) 400 years old, partly found in a few old woods, but 

 mostly scattered over the beech forests : (2) 260 years ; (3) 80 to 

 no years ; and (4) considerable areas ranging in age from i to 

 60 years. The formation of the oak woods was due to special 

 circumstances occurring in their early history. At one time the 

 oak occupied the larger part of the forest, but the great demand 

 for firewood, before coal was discovered, was the cause of large 

 areas of beech being sown. As the oaks grew fewer in number, 

 the Bavarian Government began to consider how to economise 

 the supply of oak, and decided only to cut as many annually as 

 would keep the saw-mills already referred to going, until the 

 young oaks were ready. The old oaks are all counted, and only 

 a certain number of them may be cut, even though they are 

 decaying. Saw-mills are now importing a large quantity of 

 Silvonian oak, which is rougher than the native, although perhaps 

 stronger. 



Next day we returned to Rothenbuch, and visited the district 

 of Weisserstein. A portion of this wood was sown in 1794-95, 

 and grew slowly. At 40 years of age the wood looked unthrifty, 

 the soil was covered with bilberries, and the oaks were falling 

 off. In 1846 the wood was thinned, and sown and underplanted 

 with beech, and in 186 1 the bilberries had disappeared and the 

 oak was thriving. At the age of 66 years there stood on :he 

 ground 500 oaks to the English acre, the mean height of which 

 was 60 feet, and the cubic contents about 2800 cubic feet per 



