NA TURE 



oo7 



THURSDAY, AUGUST lo, 1893. 



THE PROTECT/ON OF WOODLANDS. 

 The Protection of Woodlands. Authorised translation by 

 John Nisbet, D.GEc, of the Indian Forest Service, of 

 Kauschinger's " Waldschutz." Revised by Dr. Her- 

 mann Fiirst. One volume, demy 8vo, 252 pages. 

 (Edinburgh : David Douglas.) 



"POREST Protection, termed Waldschutz or Forst- 

 *■ schutz in German, is the art of protecting wood- 

 lands from external dangers, such as injurious meteoric 

 influences, bad soils, injurious plants and animals, and 

 human agency. The subject ranks in Germany as a 

 separate branch of Forestry, distinct from silviculture, 

 utilisation of forest produce, or forest management. In 

 France, however, this is not yet the case ; and the dangers 

 to which forests are liable, together with the various pre- 

 ventive and remedial measures which experience sug- 

 gests against them are described under the heads of 

 forest botany, zoology, forest law, silviculture, and forest 

 utihsation. 



A strong reason for this difference of treatment of the 

 same subject in the two countries is that the professors 

 of subjects taught as auxiliary to Forestry at the French 

 National Forest School at Nancy are experienced forest 

 officers, but these subjects in Germany are taught by 

 scientific specialists who have not sufficient forest expe- 

 rience to enable them to estimate the amount of damage 

 likely to occur to forests from any form of injury, and 

 the permissible limits of time and money in combating 

 it. There is much to be said in favour of foresters study- 

 inij botany and entomology from a general point of view 

 and attending lectures on these subjects by eminent pro- 

 fessors, instead of by foresters who may have worked up 

 a branch of natural science more or less thoroughly, but 

 it then becomes necessary that Forest Protection should 

 be studied in a manual written by an experienced forester. 

 The chief danger to the writer of a manual of forest 

 protection is that he miy be tempted to give undue pre- 

 ponderance to one branch of the subject, and in the 

 work under notice the account of forest insects extends 

 over io8 pages out of 246. This may be warrantable in 

 Germany, where forest insects are unusually numerous 

 and destructive, but in a treatise intended for practical 

 use in the British Isles only confusion and bewilderment 

 can result when insects which are destructive to forests 

 in Central Europe, many of which do not exist here, while 

 others that are rare and occur under different conditions 

 are described without any comment. 



Mr. Nisbet has, in the section treating of forest offences, 

 omitted certain matters relating only to German condi- 

 tions of forestry. He should have carried his omissions 

 further. No purpose is served by the inclusion of species 

 such as Chrysobothris affinis, Deudroctronus micans, 

 Cnethocampa processionea, &c., all unknown to the British 

 forester, nor of varieties like Tomicus sexdentatus, Lytta 

 vesicatoria, Agelastica aim, Ocneria dispar (apparently 

 extinct), the Agrili, &c., unless the statements made are 

 qualified by foot-notes, or otherwise. It is misleading to 

 say that Myelophilus minor, whilst remaining unknown I 

 NO. I 24 I, VOL. 48 



in many localities, often occurs in very large numbers in 

 other places, whereas but a single British specimen is 

 known; or that /'o/)'/>,^j//a/«//o occurs rather frequently 

 here and there throughout sandy districts. A few species, 

 though not British, like Gastropacha pini, or of rare occur- 

 rence, like Tomicus typographus,destr\c notice in any boo 

 dealing with forest entomology, provided that the freedom 

 from them of our British woodlands is pointed out. This 

 is done for the latter insect alone. If Mr. Nisbet had 

 omitted about half the insects which he includes, he would 

 have space to extend the diagnoses of the remaining 

 species, which are too meagre to be of any use, and are 

 little assisted by the roughly-coloured copies of some of 

 the figures in Ratzeburg's " Forst Insecten." To give some 

 account of insect attacks and methods of treatment in 

 Britain, some species have been added, which, though 

 rarely important, have occasionally annoyed tree-growers 

 in this country, such as Tomicus acwninatus, Earias 

 chlorana, Pygaera bucephala, Sesia sphegiformis, and 

 particularly the wire-worms and millepedes often most 

 destructive to seedlings Many general statements appear 

 which require modification, as, for instance, " in the 

 Diptera, instead of any cocoon, a sort of bladder or shel 

 is formed by the last larval skin " ; and in the timber, 

 boring Scolytidce, " the larvae hollow out short cone-like 

 galleries at right angles to the main gallery," which is 

 only true of Trypodendron, and not of Xyleborus or 

 Platypus. Mr. Nisbet follows the German phraseology 

 closely in his translation with curious results, such phrases 

 as "raw localities," " ovi-depositor," "rostral beetle," 

 seed owlet moths {Agrotidce: — Saat Eulen) " multannual," 

 are not welcome additions to the English language. One 

 does not make " sections " of caterpillars to discover the 

 presence of ichneumon larvse ; the Longicornia are not 

 " cervicorn," but Capricorn beetles ; and the name Gold 

 Beetle applied to Clerus formicarius is unintelligible. 



The accounts of some of the more important insects, 

 such as Curculio abietis, the cockchafer, and Liparis 

 monacha (unimportant in Britain), are good, and the 

 treatment recommended is in accordance with sound 

 forestry ; the section on decoy trees is one of the best 

 but if another edition is called for, the translator should 

 submit the chapters dealing with forest insects to a com- 

 petent entomologist and alter them so as to give a just 

 account of forest entomology in Britain. 



As regards the remaining parts of the book, in the 

 account of the damage done by winds, " the system of 

 cutting free or strengthening," Loshieb might have been 

 rendered by the term severance felling, as proposed by 

 Brandis in his notes on forest management in Germany 

 published in 188S by the India Office. Mr. Nisbet states 

 that this system has not up to the present time enjoyed 

 any very extensive adoption ; but it is a fact that sever- 

 ance fellings are extremely common in the forests of 

 Saxony. The term Scotch pine is surely preferable to 

 that of Scots pine ; and the English names of several 

 birds on page 115 require revision. Corvus frugilegus 

 is the rook and not the raven, and Monedula turriuni is 

 the jackdaw and not the rook. 



The book is well printed and of useful size, being very 

 similar in these respects to Dr. Schlich's manual of 

 forestry, and apart from the chapter of forest insects, it 

 will be very useful to the practical forester and to other 



