CONTINENTAL NOTES GERMANY. 



41 



Schroetter and von Oertzen, well-known silviculturists, have, 

 under favourable local conditions no doubt, for years manured 

 their open pine cultivations with peat, and have found that a 

 thin covering of soil mixed with sand entirely removed all the 

 dangers complained of. The question of additional cost is 

 a grave reality with which the silviculturist has to reckon ; for it 

 is not sufficient that the dry peat should be turned under, which 

 can be affected by some kinds of steam plough, but it should be 

 well mixed with the mineral soil, and, in the case of sowings, it 

 should be covered with a layer of sand or virgin soil. The 

 instruments constructed in Germany for mixing a deep layer 

 of dry peat with the mineral soil avowedly fall short of the 

 purpose ; for either they are not effective enough, or they require 

 too much draught power. Unquestionably, however, the problem 



THE KAEHLER WUEHLGRUBBER. 



will ere long be solved, since two facts have been realised, viz., 

 that a universal manuring with dry peat is desirable, and that 

 the present forest ploughs are entirely useless for this purpose. 

 In Denmark great advances have already been made in this 

 respect, and instruments of Danish construction are being 

 introduced into Germany. 



Since writing the above, I have ascertained that a grubbing 

 plough of German construction has been on trial for some years 

 past in various forest districts in the north of Germany, and that, 

 as the results were in every instance entirely satisfactory, it was 

 quite recently brought to general notice in a publication by 

 Senator Geist of Waren. 



It is called the " Kaehler Wuehlgrubber," and is constructed 

 at the iron foundry of Heinrich Kaehler - Guestrow in 

 Mecklenburg. The above sketch gives a very fair idea 



