1 66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



encroachments of the vine-grower. They do not present any 

 exceptional features of cultivation. There is usually maintained 

 a sufficient quantity of beech to seed the ground under the oak 

 for soil-protection, but where this condition is absent beeches 

 removed from thickets elsewhere are planted in the open parts. 

 This is usually done when the oaks attain the age of 40 to 50 

 years, and, when the undergrowth is sufficiently established to 

 prevent the growth of epicormic shoots or " water sprouts," a 

 regular and free system of thinning is commenced. 



Modern System of Thinning practised in Baden. 



One of the practices in our so-called system of forestry in 

 Great Britain, which has deservedly met with severe criticism on 

 the part of those who have been accustomed to the scientific 

 methods of the Continent, is that insane one of thinning out 

 young woods immediately they enter, or even before they have 

 entered, the thicket stage. The practice is one which cannot be 

 too strongly condemned where the production of commercial 

 timber is the main object in view. 



At the same time, it is just possible that in the building up of 

 the more rational systems which are at present slowly taking 

 shape in this country, we may err in rushing to the opposite 

 extreme by following too rigidly what may now be described as 

 the <7/^ Continental method of thinning, that is to say, the method 

 which in practice consisted in the removing of very little more 

 than the suppressed trees. It may not be without interest, there- 

 fore, to follow from its origin the past history of the old method 

 of procedure, and also to examine the results as one finds them 

 in various regions of the Black Forest, where the eff'ects of the 

 old method are still apparent in some regions. 



In the beginning of last century pasturage by cattle and other 

 stock was general throughout the forests of Germany. This had 

 the effect of retarding natural regeneration. The forest would 

 get more and more open, grasses and other weeds would have 

 free scope for development, the quality of the forest soil would 

 gradually become deteriorated owing to the open condition of 

 the canopy, and ultimately the forest would become incapable 

 of restocking itself. At anyrate, this appears to have been a 

 common condition of matters about a century ago in the silver 

 fir forests of Baden. By and by rights of pasturage appear 



