I 66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Hungary, and nearly half of the remainder from the United 

 States, while large quantities of charcoal have also to be imported. 

 Consequently, endeavours are being made to induce Government 

 to undertake afforestation and planting, and to encourage private 

 planting by placing an import duty on wood and charcoal. 



As it is only within recent years that the inland fisheries have 

 been placed under the charge of the Forest Department, there 

 are, as might be expected, several articles treating of diseases of 

 fresh-water fishes ; but there are also special articles on forest 

 trees, such as the walnut, the Scots pine of Auvergne, and the 

 silver fir of Normandy, as well as on such matters as mountain 

 planting in the Cevennes, the geography and vegetation of 

 Languedoc, the correction of mountain torrents in Austria, on 

 caoutchouc, the preparation of artificial cotton from wood, 

 tanning materials, the value of different antiseptics, and various 

 other miscellaneous subjects. Nor can it be matter of surprise 

 that a good deal of space is given to jurisprudence and politico- 

 fiscal questions, such as the taxation of timber imports, — the 

 frontier duties being one of the ever-burning questions on the 

 Continent. 



Of course there are some purely scientific articles, mostly 

 contributed by professors at the Nancy Forest School. One 

 of these gives a summary of the Report for 1903 of the 

 Swiss branch of forestry investigations that are being made 

 simultaneously with similar researches in the other branches 

 throughout Central Europe. Three questions are here specially 

 dealt with, relating to — (i) the benefits obtainable in different 

 degrees of thinning ; (2) the laws concerning the development 

 of the underground organs (root-system) of forest trees ; and (3) 

 the comparative value of different leguminous plants as live 

 green-manure for nurseries. The results of thinnings made thrice 

 since 1889 in spruce and beech woods, and in four different 

 degrees, now show that the increment both in total basal area 

 (or diameter) of the stems, and in height, is greater when the 

 thinning is free — though not excessive — than when it is merely 

 confined to the removal of suppressed, moribund, and entirely 

 dominated stems. And of course this is just what is also indicated 

 by practical experience. The investigations into the growth of 

 the root-system were confined to i- to 6-year-old plants of six 

 broad-leaved and six coniferous species, all of common woodland 

 growth. The results arrived at are as follows: — 



