2 28 transactions of royal scottish arboricultural society. 



Afforestation of Waste Lands. 



In Dr Albert's interesting work on root disease in pines on 

 old farm lands, a short notice of which was published in the 

 Transactions, vol. xxi., p. 143, an identical disease was shown to 

 be prevalent on heather tracts in the Lueneburger Heide and 

 elsewhere ; and it was even then accepted that only true 

 forest soils could be considered to offer immunity from the root 

 pest which attacks pine afforestation on all other lands. 



This position was questioned, as was to be expected, and 

 many instances were cited where afforestations on forest lands in 

 the regions of the Lueneburger Heide had suffered in the same 

 way as those on open heather. 



Von Bentheim and Graebner, who are considered experts in 

 silviculture on heather lands, hold this view. The former at 

 a recent forest conference, held in Bremen, said: "The pine 

 forests can, in their early youth, satisfactorily regulate the action 

 on the soil of both moisture and heat, but are not able to do 

 this when they reach a more advanced age, and it is for this 

 reason that the early pole stage is such a critical time. We 

 see, in all pine afforestation in the Lueneburger Heide, first 

 isolated premature deaths, then a gradual thinning out of the 

 crop, and finally a general breakdown of the forest, in short 

 the regular course of the diseases which are still known under 

 the collective name of root-rot ; and this happens not only on 

 newly reclaimed tracts but on old forest soils as well. This 

 is a fact which has been verified by the most recent research." 



In the face of such an authoritative assertion, the possibility 

 could not be disregarded of the existence of a special climatic 

 influence, or of other unrealised conditions of growth, inherent in 

 and peculiar to the North-West German heather tracts ; the 

 more so as this theory had been for years adopted as infallible 

 by many authors. However, as no special peculiarities, 

 pertaining to the tracts in question, could be elicited by the 

 most diligent inquiries, nothing remained but to test the 

 accuracy of "the most recent research" quoted by Von 

 Bentheim, and accepted by others. 



A. Zimmermann undertook these inquiries on behalf of the 

 Forest Academy of Eberswalde, and made careful and far- 

 reaching investigations into the forest history of the districts 

 in question, in order to ascertain— firstly, whether and to what 



