NOTES ON CONTINENTAL FORESTRY IN 1906. 7 fel f 
Kingdom, yet one must at once admit that it would be quite 
impossible to provide such a high class of theoretical instruction 
for such a moderate annual expenditure. 
In one very important respect as to its future development 
Prussia occupies a much more favourable position than 
Britain—namely, in regard to adequate, well-ensured supplies 
of pit-wood for the coal-mining industry. It now furnishes about 
175,000,000 cubic feet of pit-wood annually, which represents 
about one-fourth of its total production of wood. This is attained 
in the ordinary course of prudent management, and without any 
purpose of growing woods with a low rotation and solely for 
pit-wood, which it is considered unwise to attempt owing to the 
fact that every now and again the market for small stuff of 
pit-wood size is liable to be strongly influenced by calamities 
such as heavy windfall or extensive injuries by insects, etc. 
Among the most important of the recent publications on 
German forestry is Professor Endres’ (of Munich) Handbook of 
Forest Policy, Legislation and Statistics. This is the most complete 
and up-to-date work on this branch of sylvicultural knowledge. 
Among some of the innumerable matters with which he deals, 
one is naturally anxious to know the latest conclusions that have 
been drawn from the experiments still going on to ascertain 
the effects of forests on atmospheric precipitations. The con- 
clusions here shown are that the woodlands do not increase the 
rainfall, but merely influence its distribution within the wooded 
area and its immediate vicinity. As regards the hydro- 
economic effect of woodlands in increasing, retaining, and con- 
suming the water that finds its way into the soil, it can 
meanwhile only be said that on level ground the woodland soil 
is moister than soil in the open merely to a depth of about 
6 inches, whereas in the lower layers, which are those generally 
pervaded by the root-system of trees, it is considerably drier than 
soil in the open. But in hill-forests the hydro-economic 
conditions are more favourable in the woodlands; fence wooded 
mountain tracts may justly be considered the chief water-reservoirs 
throughout Continental Europe, as was proved by Ebermayer and 
Hartmann’s investigations, published in 1904. What applies 
on the Continent will also apply in Britain, and the large 
plantations now being made in water-catchment areas in 
connection with the water-supply of Edinburgh, Liverpool, and 
other cities will in due time produce most beneficial results. 
