40 Germany. 



In the timber forest, the unregulated selection 

 system was continued generally through the period, 

 although in 1454 we find in the Harz Mountains a 

 transition to a seed tree management, a few seed 

 trees or groups of seed trees being left on the other- 

 wise cleared area, somewhat in the manner of the 

 French methode a tire et-aire. Toward the end of the 

 15th century we find here and there a distinction 

 made between timber forest, where no firewood is to 

 be cut, and "leaf forest" which is to serve the latter 

 purpose, and is to be treated as coppice. 



Toward the end of the period we find, however, 

 various provisions which are unquestionably dictated 

 by the fear of a scarcity of timber. The discovery that 

 pasture prevents natural regeneration led to a pro- 

 hibition of pasturing in the newly cut felling areas. 

 In 1488, we find already a diameter limit of 12 inches 

 just as is being advocated in the United States now 

 as a basis for conservative exploitation, the city 

 of Brunswick buying stumpage, and in the contract 

 being limited to this diameter, and in addition obli- 

 gated to leave 15 oaks or aspen per acre for seed 

 trees. 



Attempts at regulating the use of a given forest 

 by division into felling areas are recorded in 1359, 

 when the city forest of Erfurt, 286 acres, was divided 

 into seven felling areas. It is questionable whether 

 this referred to a coppice with short rotation or 

 whether a selection forest with seven periodic areas 

 is meant. 



We see, then, that the first sporadic and, to be sure, 

 crude beginnings of a forest management in Germany 



