754 FIELD-CHOPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY. 



Oaks or conifers are used for this purpose, according to 

 locality. For oaks, acorns are sown 3 meters (10 feet) apart ; 

 at the same time, Scots pine nurses are planted or sown in 

 rows to protect the oaks, and are removed eventually in 

 thinnings. The rotation is fixed at 100 years. In the inter- 

 vals (4 feet broad) between the plants, field-crops are grown 

 on the better soils for 4 years, and on poorer soils, for 2 

 years. 



In the first year it is usual to grow a crop of potatoes, in 

 the second year, winter-corn ; if the field-crops are con- 

 tinued during the third and fourth years the same order is 

 followed. When the potatoes are dug the spaces between the 

 forest plants are hoed, weeded, and the plants tended almost 

 as carefully as if they were in a forest-nursery. If in the first 

 year there should not be enough plants or seed to stock the 

 ground, the whole area is cultivated for a potato-crop, and, as 

 an exception, the restocking undertaken only in the autumn. 



In Hesse about 10,000 acres of forest land have been thus 

 treated. In Wurtemberg also, this system has been adopted 

 extensively, especially on a rich soil near Bibrach. The 

 method has been tried also in the Prussian provinces of 

 Pomerania, Silesia, Hesse-Nassau, and in Alsace-Lorraine ; in 

 some Bohemian districts ; in Hungary, where also crops of 

 maize are reared. At present, however, the agricultural 

 aspect of this system has lost in interest greatly for well- 

 known reasons. 



Pollards of willows, ash, poplars, etc., grown in lines on wet 

 land, also imply a steady annual production of grass between 

 the rows of trees. 



Osier-beds are truly silvicultural means of producing 

 material for basket-making. They are, however, but rarely 

 managed by foresters and are regarded as a branch of 

 agriculture ; therefore a short account of them may be given 

 here. 



Osier-beds are an exceedingly remunerative form of culture. 

 Danckelmann says that good osier-beds may yield a net annual 

 profit of 7 to 8 per acre. To succeed, however, a moderately 

 warm climate is necessary, a good moist, but not wet, deep 

 soil, deep trenching and clean weeding, as in a garden. The 



