54 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This plan ran till 1870, and left good results. There were 

 some weaknesses in it, such as the excessive number of working- 

 sections, and the failure to resort sufficiently to artificial restock- 

 ing where natural regeneration was unsuccessful, but on the 

 whole it was good. 



During the last thirty years (up to 19 18) the revenue, both 

 gross and net, has increased about 150 %. It was, on the mean 

 of the years 1915-18, gross 2,048,000 frs., and net 1,642,000 frs., 

 or 120 frs. per hectare (48s. an acre), this last on the net 

 revenue. Three million francs were expected for 1919. 



With regard to the Scots pine, the method employed latterly 

 by the Germans for regeneration has been sowing in strips 

 16 inches wide and the strips 5 feet apart. The strips were 

 pecked up for about a foot deep in autumn, and then rolled 

 smooth in the following spring before sowing. Failures were 

 planted. Thus the Germans gave up natural regeneration 

 among the Scots pine, though one would think nothing would 

 be easier in the sandy soil of Haguenau. They said that if 

 they opened the cover the result was weeds, and that young 

 Scots pine regeneration would not stand the heat, while if there 

 was regeneration without felling the trees the young regeneration 

 would not stand the cover. Nevertheless they had actually in 

 hand at the time they left an experimental area in which they 

 had cleared bands of forest 40 metres (130 feet) wide, alternat- 

 ing with uncut bands of the same width, in order to see the 

 result. This was in fact magnificent, and the regeneration had 

 been greatly aided by the removal of the stumps, bushes and 

 moss on the cleared bands by people who did the clearing free 

 of cost in return for the litter they removed. The idea was to 

 regenerate naturally the strips first cleared, and when it came to 

 cutting the strips left standing to plant, since there would be no 

 seed-bearers at hand in their case. This would have been 

 unnecessary really, as a note farther down will show. 



After some cleanings the first thinning among the pine comes 

 at twenty years. Thereafter the prescription is two thinnings 

 every twenty years, removing 10 to 20 cub. metres per hectare 

 (140 to 280 cub. feet per acre) up to the fortieth year, then 

 between the fortieth and sixtieth years 30 to 40 cub. metres (425 

 to 565 cub. feet per acre), and after that 50 to 60 cub. metres (705 

 to 850 cub. feet). In practice the thinnings came closer, but 

 with the same outturn, on the principle of frequent but cautious 



