768 



FOBEST-LITTER. 



According to Krutzsch, there may be a difference of 60 per cent, 

 in the amount of foliage produced by Scots pine and beech 

 in wet and dry years. Severe storms during the season when 

 leaves are produced are very prejudicial to the supply of foliage. 



(d) Density of Growth and System of Management. The 

 densest woods do not produce most litter, nor do open woods 

 where each tree is exposed completely to the influence of light, 

 the number of individual trees being then too few. The most 

 litter is produced annually when there are as many stems as 

 possible in a wood, with the proviso that each stem has ample 

 room for its growth a density which results from well- 

 executed thinnings. 



Even-aged woods exercise a similar influence to that of the 

 density of woods on the annual supply of litter. When all trees 

 in a wood are of the same height and their crowns form a dense 

 leaf-canopy at a uniform level above the ground, the influence 

 of light is far less than when the heights of the trees vary, when 

 lateral light is admitted between the groups of the taller trees 

 and their crowns consequently grow lower down their stems, 

 as in the group and selection systems. 



(e) Age of Trees. The greatest production of dead leaves 

 and needles is during the pole stage, and falls off only slightly 

 in the older stages of high forest, provided the leaf-canopy is 

 fairly complete. 



The following results give the average yield of litter as deter- 

 mined by observation* made in the Bavarian State forests. 



One acre of dense forest of the ages given in the subjoined 

 statement produces annually so many tons of air-dried litter : 



Ebernuiyer, " Die gesammte Lehre der Waldstreu," Merlin, ]S7t>. 



