CAXADIAX FOh't:sTh'Y ASSOCIATION 27 



creased care and better management that capital has been increased from 26,040 feet 

 b. m. to 31,800 feet b. m. per acre, and the interest taken greater still in proportion 

 as timber prices have risen. At the present time spruce pays at about 4 per cent on 

 the capital represented when grown pure under a rotation of 90 years. This is on 

 medium mountain soil in the Bavarian Alps. Fifty years ago these forests were 

 just being used to their fullest capacity ; before that they had scarcely been touched, 

 as being inaccessible. 



As is natural, the forests of (Germany are situated, at least in the largest com- 

 pact areas, in the mountains of that country, where 70 to 80 per cent of the land is 

 under forest. Besides this the largest areas are the sandy heaths in Hanover and East 

 and West Prussia, so that really only about 10 per cent of the forests are growing on 

 good agricultural land. These for the most part are situated in river valleys where 

 the land is subject to floods. A gradual process is, however, taking place whereby 

 the Prussian state especially is buying up poor, sandy land which is going out of 

 cultivation and planting it with pine. On the other hand, certain tracts of really 

 good land have been sold and denuded of trees. During the last twenty years $500,000 

 has been spent annually for this purpose and enormous areas productively stocked 

 with Scots pine. 



Turning to the reproduction of the tree which interests us most, white pine 

 (Pinus strobus). This though at present growing only on small areas, in the aggregate 

 about 5,000 acres in Germany, shows that it can be profitably grown or reproduced 

 either by self-sown seeds or planting with three year old trees. In the former method 

 the old and original crop is gradually removed, leaving spaces sometimes as much as 

 half an acre between the trees where the young trees come up in large quantities. 

 When the area is seemingly well stocked more of the old trees are taken, still leaving 

 a few so as to ensure all spaces being filled in. 



In this way it has been found that from the first cutting of the old stand to the 

 complete clearance of the same and restocking of the area by self-sowing seed, it takes 

 seven to ten years. 



This being done without any cost for seed or preparation of the soil. The old 

 stand is of a dense nature and so the forest soil is covered with needles and twigs 

 which rapidly decay when exposed to the atmospheric agencies. This leaves the soil 

 in a receptive condition for the seed. Most of the branches and tops of the trees cut 

 down are either used as faggot wood or burnt. 



The spruce, the next most important tree to us, is largely reproduced by planting, 

 or about 90 per cent of all areas. Only in the Bavarian Alps and a few other local- 

 ities is it left to reseed itself. This is done by cutting the forest by strips up the 

 mountain side, moving in opposite direction to the prevalent wind. When a strip 

 is first cut it is three-quarters to a tree's length in width. This gradually widens as 

 the first area becomes reseeded. Finally the first reseeded area has become old enough 

 to cut again. A rotation of 85 to 90 years is adopted and yields timber of 16 to 18 

 inches square on medium soil. This size pays best, as if left to get larger the increase 

 in price does not more than pay for the interest on the money represented by the orig- 

 inal trees. 



The Scots pine, another very important tree, and its counterpart, the Norway 

 or red pine here, is one which must have a good future. This is usually planted as 

 one or two years old untransplanted seedlings. In a few districts natural seeding 

 takes place when the old crop can be removed in three successive cuts with two years 

 between each ;the first being made previous to a seed year, the second after a good seed 

 vciir, and the third about two years after the young seedlings have got started. Even 

 then a few trees are left to stand over to reseed blank spaces until the end of the rota- 

 tion, and produce very large timber. 



Two very important trees, the beech and silver fir (balsam), do not interest us so 

 much here but afford good examples in methods of reproduction suitable for th^ trcnt- 

 ment of hemlock and Douglas fir and perhaps the hard maple. 



