MANAGEMENT OF SCOTS FIR FORESTS IN NORTH GERMANY. 1995 
than is usually found in more freely thinned woods. During the 
next forty years the smaller suppressed trees are taken out from 
time to time, after which little is done until the end of the rotation. 
The first thinnings yield little but brushwood, and this is dragged 
out to the forest roads and lotted up in cords, the trees remaining 
as they were cut. The thinnings after this will be large enough 
for pit-props, or the smaller trees for poles which are sold entire, 
all wood not suitable for these purposes being cut up into firewood. 
After the sixtieth year or so small quantities of low-class timber 
will be produced, and the roots will be large enough for removal. 
About this time, too, the undersowing with beech or hornbeam 
occurs, which may either be done with the intention of changing 
the crop after the firs are. removed, or for purposes in connection 
with soil preservation and fertility, wind breaks, filling up thin 
stockings, etc. This sowing is also done by women, who break 
the surface with a small hoe in patches about a yard or so apart, 
and sow about a dozen seeds in each patch. These trees thrive 
remarkably well under the shade of the firs after they once get a 
fair start, and exert a powerful influence on the soil fertility. If 
it be intended to change the crop from pine into beech forest, the 
pines are gradually thinned out as the hardwoods grow up, but if 
the conditions are not suitable for this, the latter get little con- 
sideration, and grow as they can until the end of the rotation, 
when they yield considerable quantities of firewood. 
Constant watchfulness against insect ravages is necessary in these 
forests, especially in regard to the attacks of Liparis monacha, 
Gastropacha pint, etc., the caterpillars of which moths sometimes 
commit frightful devastations in the fir forests. Acres of forest 
may be frequently seen in which every tree has been ringed with 
a band of pitch for the purpose of preventing the caterpillars of 
the latter from ascending the trees, and the decaying remains of 
the creatures may be still seen sticking on the ring by the hundred, 
in company with many other beetles, etc., which had evidently been 
bent upon a similar errand. For the purpose of destroying the 
larvee of cockchafers and other pests, swine are allowed to be 
herded in the forests in suitable places. 
Although great quantities of the produce of the forests are con- 
sumed in the districts where grown, a large proportion is transferred 
to Stettin and other seaports for shipment, or to Berlin for home 
use. For this purpose, use is made of the numerous canals and 
rivers which intersect the country. All the unhewn timber is 
VOL. XIII. PART II. fc) 
