CONTINENTAL NOTES — GERMANY. 43 



The young Scots-pine cultures at Waren show, even on the 

 driest and poorest spots, an absolutely exceptional growth, and 

 are characterised by an early and healthy development of their 

 tap-roots, which may be ascribed to the fact that the grubbing 

 plough not merely mixes effectively the dry peat and rich surface 

 with the soil, but thoroughly disturbs and loosens it to a depth 

 of 50 centimetres. The cost of the grubbing plough is given by 

 Senator Geist as 1250 marks, but a price list can doubtless be 

 obtained from the manufacturers. In Waren a team of six 

 ordinary agricultural horses has in every instance sufficed. 

 Oberforstmeister von Maltzan, the head of the Mecklenburg 

 forest service, inspected the Waren cultivations on several 

 occasions, and in 1908 wrote : — " A new and original method of 

 preparing the soil for pine cultivation, by means of the so-called 

 Kaehler grubber, has during the last five years been in 

 progress in the town forest of Waren, at first on a trial area of 

 some extent, but later on a larger scale. The advantage of this 

 method is that, whereas the old forest plough threw the rich sur- 

 face soil aside, the grubber thoroughly mixes the food-materials 

 contained therein with the soil, and renders them directly and 

 easily accessible to the plants. The advantages of this are very 

 evident. The young plants are extraordinarily luxuriant and 

 healthy, and I have never seen a better growth of Scots pine. 

 On my recommendation, cultivation with the grubber has been 

 introduced into the forest district of Malchow, and equally brilliant 

 results have been obtained. The extraordinarily rapid growth 

 of plants on grubber-prepared soil, and the absence of blanks, 

 render these cultivations independent at a very early age. 

 These excellent results make the more general use of the 

 grubbing plough desirable, and I should consider it entirely 

 wrong to return to the old forest plough." The officer in charge 

 of the Malchow forest division had evidently to do with con- 

 ditions somewhat more difficult than those at Waren, as he had to 

 employ eight horses, and in almost every instance had to resort to 

 levelling by manual labour ; but, nevertheless, his maximum cost 

 did not amount to more than 55 marks per hectare. As regards 

 the results, he writes that he has cultivated considerable areas 

 on grubber-prepared soils, that repairs were nowhere required, 

 that the various ailments from which pine culture so frequently 

 suffers were absent, and that the appearance of the grubber 

 cultures is absolutely phenomenal in comparison with that of 



