28 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plants the infection is more frequent nearer the ground. 

 Fortunately much the greater number of witch's brooms are 

 found on branches, as against stems, so that it is not usually 

 necessary to cut the trees down. It is not even necessary to 

 burn the witch's brooms, for when the branch dies the fungus 

 also dies. 



III. The important action of dead leaves in forest economy 

 is well known, but to get it in definite figures is new, and 

 when we see these figures I think most of us will be 

 surprised, and will resolve more than ever to be very 

 stern in repressing the pernicious habit of removing dead 

 leaves from our woods. It is a very common practice, and 

 a deadly one. 



P. M., in the Revue des Eaux et Forets^ has collected, with 

 much care, some very useful concrete facts in this connection. 

 Thus, in the Forest of Lemberg (Moselle), there are two 

 compartments, Nos. 85 and 87, respectively loj and 9 hectares 

 in area, beech with some oak, quite similar in stock and all 

 other ways, and 300 metres apart, but No. 85 is near a village, 

 while No. 87 is more distant. In No. 85, from the age of 

 about forty-five years — no doubt when the stock became open 

 enough for the purpose — the whole of the leaves have been 

 raked away, leaving the soil bare and hard, whereas No. 87 

 has not been touched. In March 1920 an enumeration of 

 the trees was made, with the following results per hectare : — 



72-4 



82-0 



83-3 



In each compartment twelve sample trees were felled, the 

 diameters measured, and the ages counted. This showed that 

 from the time when the thicket stage ceased, and the spacing 

 of the trees allowed of the raking off of the dead leaves, 

 the annual rings were markedly smaller in No. 85 than in 

 No. 87. 



