42 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of its construction. The first trials with the grubbing plough 

 took place in 1 902-1 903, in the town forests of Waren, on an 

 area of 30 hectares (66 acres). The soil of the trial area is 

 described as dry, firm, gravelly sand, overlaid by dry peat up 

 to a thickness of 12 centimetres, and covered with a some- 

 what dense growth of grass and shrubs, characteristic of such 

 localities. Since then similar cultivations of Scots pine have 

 been made over more extensive areas, with broadcast sowings, 

 sowing in strips, and in drilled furrows, and with planting. In 

 some cases the whole area was grubbed, but more recently this 

 has been done only in strips 50 centimetres broad with the same 

 distance between them. The plough thoroughly loosened the 

 soil to a depth of 50 centimetres, and the results were in every 

 instance quite exceptional. Experience in Waren has shown 

 that it is absolutely essential, especially when sowing is con- 

 templated, that the grubbing should take place in the preceeding 

 summer or autumn, and that the levelling of the area or strips 

 should be done as early as possible in spring. The cost of 

 grubbing 50-centimetre strips varies in accordance with the 

 surface cover, but the maximum in Waren has not exceeded 

 36 marks for 10,000 running metres. The same applies to 

 the cost of levelling. When the surface cover is light, and does 

 not contain many roots of heather, bilberry, etc., this can be 

 done with small 50-centimetre-broad harrows at a cost up to 

 10 marks per 10,000 running metres; when sowing is con- 

 templated, three to four harrowings are to be recommended. 

 When the surface cover is dense, and the soil contains 

 many hard roots, levelling by hand labour is preferable ; and 

 this has the additional advantage that the surface can at the 

 same time be covered with a thin layer of sand, thereby giving a 

 better bed for germination. The cost of this operation has 

 varied in Waren from 10 to 15 marks per 10,000 running 

 metres. When planting is resorted to, the levelling need not 

 be so thorough, but the strips should be well trodden down 

 before the plants are put in. The growth of grasses and 

 herbaceous plants, unquestionably encouraged by the deep 

 grubbing, has been easily kept in check at the cost of from two 

 to six women's day's-wages per hectare ; in some cases a repeti- 

 tion of this was found necessary in the second year. Drought 

 has caused no trouble in Waren, which is notoriously one of 

 the driest places in Germany. 



