174 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In Baden the labour question is settled by making nature do 

 a large proportion of the stocking. 



Artificial planting is certainly resorted to, and now more 

 promptly, and to a much greater extent than formerly ; and 

 very extensive nursery establishments are carried on in South 

 Germany ; but if the percentage of trees planted over the whole 

 vast area of forests in Baden were reckoned up, it would be 

 found very small indeed. It is the large amount of natural 

 seeding of the forest which makes it possible to carry on the 

 very necessary artificial cultures with profit. 



A large amount of labour is provided in the forest, but it is 

 largely labour which gives a good immediate return. For 

 example, thinnings proper (there may be cleanings before) are 

 not commenced until a net surplus is obtainable. 



The systems of forestry which obtain in Baden have taken a 

 century and more to build up, and they are still being improved 

 upon. It will probably take little less than a century to perfect 

 any similar system in this country. 



It is not suggested that any system built up exactly on the 

 Baden pattern could be established here. We could not, for 

 example, grow the silver fir, for it seems perfectly certain that we 

 have got beyond the northern limit for the profitable growth of 

 this tree. But there are other species which, no doubt, will be 

 found suitable to take the place of the silver fir. 



The silvicultural characters of the few forest species chiefly 

 cultivated in Germany have been thoroughly studied and are 

 well understood, so far as they apply to German climatic con- 

 ditions. It is by no means the case that we are so thoroughly 

 conversant with the silvicultural characters even of common 

 suitable species, as applied to our conditions and climate, and 

 these ought to be the subject of further investigation and study. 

 The principles involved are, however, the same. 



It seems to the writer, therefore, that when and wherever 

 forests are to be established in this country on anything like an 

 extensive scale, the system should be built on such a foundation 

 as to provide first for the permanency of the forest. Species 

 should be selected which (always assuming they are suitable 

 timber species) could reasonably be expected to reproduce their 

 kind from seed, naturally, to a more or less perfect extent, so as 

 not in the future to have to depend entirely for their renewal on 

 artificial planting. This of course could only be accomplished in 



