110 Germany. 



Coppice and coppice with standards are mostly 

 in private hands as well as the coniferous selection 

 forest, the State forests being almost entirely high 

 forest, i.e., seed forest, other than under selection 

 method. 



Methods of Improving the Crop. The credit of 

 having first systematically formulated the practice 

 of thinnings under the name of Durchjorstung (for 

 the first thinning), Durchplenterung (for the later 

 thinnings), belongs to Hartig, although the practice 

 of such thinnings had been known and applied here 

 and there before his time. He confined himself 

 mainly to the removal of the undesirable species, 

 dead and dying, suppressed and damaged trees, being 

 especially emphatic in his advice not to interrupt the 

 crown cover. Excepting the early weeding or im- 

 provement cuttings, these thinnings were not to 

 begin until the fiftieth to seventieth year in the broad- 

 leaved forest, but in conifers in the twentieth to 

 thirtieth year. 



The first attempt to explain on a biological basis 

 the process and effect of thinning was made by Spath in 

 a special contribution (1802). Cotta, in his Silvicul- 

 ture, although at first agreeing with Hartig, later in 

 his third edition (1821) changes his mind, and im- 

 proves both upon the biological explanation of Spath 

 and the practice of Hartig, pointing out that the latter 

 came too late with his assistance, that the struggle 

 between the individuals should be anticipated, and 

 the thinning repeated as soon as the branches begin 

 to die; but he also recognizes the practical difficulty 

 of the application of this cultural measure on account 



