GERMAN FOREST NOTES. 85 



soils where, a priori, the same close cultivation is not essential 

 and not practised, such early interference in the struggle for 

 existence is not called for. Albert maintains that if the forester 

 neglects to reduce on heather sands the number of young trees 

 sufficiently early and periodically and systematically, nature will 

 do so later on in a haphazard and unwelcome manner. He 

 ascribes the numerous disasters in afforestation, which in the 

 first instance led to his visit to the heather tracts, almost solely to 

 negligence in this respect. Dr Schwappach, who has great 

 experience in Pinus silvestris cultivation on poor sandy soil, 

 shares Albert's opinion, and ascribes the sickening and frequent 

 breakdowns in the pine cultures solely to a disproportion 

 between the number of trees and the available nutriment and 

 water. This is, in his opinion, the only reason for the dying of 

 whole groups of trees, which he says practically die of hunger 

 and thirst. Root fungi, which were made the scapegoat, appear 

 equally on rich and poor soils with an open and closed formation, 

 and even on single park trees, and though their appearance may 

 be one of the results of such disasters they are not the cause. 

 Dr Schwappach made experiments in a densely-grown area of a 

 lo-year-old pine plantation, isolating the trees in four lines, 

 leaving the next four intact, and so on. Already in the second 

 year the trees in the thinned-out lines show a large increase in 

 growth, as compared with the others, not merely in girth but in 

 height, which latter is quite contrary to the widely spread idea 

 that the consequences of isolation cause a diminution of 

 increase in height. Both Schwappach and Albert recommend 

 an early and repeated cutting-out of the young growth, late in 

 autumn or early in winter, to avoid danger from fire, and covering 

 the ground with the removed plants. Such insects as may breed 

 on the rapidly decomposing woody part are of a harmless nature. 

 The number of stems should be reduced to at least 10,000 per 

 hectare by the time the plantations are ten to fifteen years 

 old. 



Oberforster Baumgarten is another strong advocate of an early 

 cutting-out of the dense culture which for light sandy soils is 

 imperative. Light and air, he states, are necessary for the 

 healthy development of the young pine aflforestation, and such 

 early removal of the young plants prevents a useless waste of 

 power and strength in the early struggle for existence. He has 

 found out by experience that by such means, and by leaving all 



