FORESTRY EDUCATION. 93 
firmer hold on the soil. In this respect I remember a remarkable 
instance. When I was a forest student I joined an excursion to 
the Thiiringian forest under the guidance of my old teacher, Dr 
Gustav Heyer. There we were one day shown an old wood of 
spruce and silver fir, about 140 years old. On examining the 
wood we found all the trees in rows running from west to 
east, and every edge tree on the west was a silver fir. It is well 
known that nobody thought of planting or sowing in rows 
180 years ago in those out-of-the-way places, so that the wood 
was evidently the result of natural regeneration. Hence the 
only possible explanation was, that the silver firs along the 
western edge stood as well as the trees behind them ; where the 
edge trees were spruces, they had in the conrse of time been 
blown down, carrying the trees behind with them. Thus the 
whole wood appeared as if it had been planted or sown in lines. 
As already stated, the forester cannot prevent all accidents of 
this class, because sometimes woods are blown down, even if all 
possible precautions have been taken, especially as gales are 
occasionally perverse, and blow from the east; but anyone who 
cares to visit, for instance, the kingdom of Saxony, will be 
astonished to see what the skill of the forester can do in this 
respect. The Saxon State forests have, for many years past, 
been managed on the financial principle, and they yield a revenue 
far higher than those in any other State known to me. Now, 
the best paying tree in Saxony is the common spruce, as it yields 
heavy crops, of which up to 80 per cent. are classed as timber, 
and which is used for a variety of purposes in construction, and 
also for the manufacture of paper pulp, an article becoming more 
and more important to the forester and forest proprietor. 
Spruce, as you know, is very liable to be thrown by wind, in 
fact, more so than almost any other of our forest trees, and yet 
in Saxony spruce woods flourish. Indeed, the damage done by 
gales is wonderfully small. This is achieved by managing each 
forest charge according to a well-considered working plan, which 
lays down the general grouping of the different age classes, so 
that no cutting causes an open front to be exposed in the direction 
from which the strong winds generally blow. 
I cannot follow up this subject on the present occasion, but I 
desire to add that, in my opinion, there are, for British wood 
managers, no more interesting forests and forest management to 
be seen than in the hilly parts of Saxony; and if any of you 
