190 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this should be done in autumn, as the silt must be exposed to a 

 winter frost. The actual planting took place in spring following, 

 the intervals betweenfthe plants being protected by bushes and 

 reeds. 



Naturally an afforestation of this sort is expensive, and hardly 

 to be undertaken where no other interests exist but the pro- 

 duction of wood. The estimate for the " Frische Nehrung " 

 alone amounts to nearly ;^ 100,000, spread over thirty years. 

 The planting material used in the afforestation consists almost 

 entirely of one-year-old Scots pine plants. In some places, where 

 old soil cropped out, oak has done well. 



Similar reclamation works are going on in many places along 

 the coast, but where less money is available than is required for 

 such intensive working as that on the " Frische Nehrung," culti- 

 vation is started with Pmus uncmata, a variety of P. ?nontana, 

 which covers and protects the ground much earlier and more 

 effectively than Scots pine, but which grows more slowly after- 

 wards and yields less produce. 



The amount spent on cultural operations in the Prussian 

 State forests has again been raised by 1,591,500 marks (about 

 ;^79,ooo) in the budget for 1908, and now amounts to 6,842,000 

 marks (about ^342,000). In the other German States a con- 

 siderable increase has also taken place of late years in the 

 amount dedicated to the future in the shape of cultural forest 

 operations. Austria is proceeding vigorously with the afforesta- 

 tion of the Karst, an undertaking of great difficulty owing to 

 the scarcity of water, which rushes down the denuded hill-sides. 

 The regulation of the water supply represents here, as in the 

 French Alps, the main difficulty. It is only the richest country 

 in the world which hesitates to put its hand into its pocket 

 for posterity, though it would have all the advantage of the 

 experience gained by other countries, and often dearly bought. 



