ANNUAL EXCURSION. 95 



there is a duplicate station in the forest. The experiments are 

 largely concerned with the relationship between the source of 

 seed and the nature of the tree produced. A detailed account 

 of the experiments which are being conducted here is to be 

 found in the proceedings of the Swiss Centralanstalt fiXr das 

 forstliche Versuchswesen. 



The official programme for Sunday was somewhat altered, and 

 the departure from Zurich for Chur was postponed until the 

 afternoon. 



CHUR. 

 Oberthor Forest. 



On Monday Mr Enderlin and Mr Meier conducted a tour 

 through the forests of the Oberthor, which clothe the steep slopes 

 behind the town of Chur. These forests are chiefly coniferous, 

 consisting of some 4500 acres of spruce, silver fir, and a few Scots 

 pine. The spruce is dominant in the upper parts, while more 

 silver fir occurs towards the valley bottom. Conifers constitute 

 95 7o of the stock of the forest, while broad-leaved species make up 

 the remaining 5 7o- The broad-leaved species consist of beech, 

 sycamore and ash. Originally the only means of transport here 

 were earth slides, which did considerable damage to the timber, 

 and also caused a great deal of erosion to take place. These 

 have now been discarded, as a good road system was planned 

 and carried out 10 years ago. This divides the hill slope into a 

 series of parallel strips (Etagen), along the lower edges of which 

 run the contour roads. In each strip the timber is slid down for 

 short distances until the road is reached. 



The old method of regeneration was by producing gaps in the 

 canopy artificially. The method now employed is to take advan- 

 tage of any natural gaps, thin out the trees on their edges, and 

 in this way obtain groups of young growth. Early thinnings are 

 made in order to regulate the mixture and to get the proper 

 proportions of the different species. Throughout the rotation 

 the best trees are favoured in all thinnings. As thinnings are 

 proceeded with, light gets in and patches of " advance growth " 

 appear and form the nuclei of the groups. There is only about 

 5 7o to 6 7o of beech in the forest at present, and the manage- 

 ment is striving to increase this. 



The prices of timber in this locality are fairly good, spruce 

 fetching up to is. o^d. per cubic foot on rail, Scots pine is. 4d. 



