Development of Silviculture. 59 



The method of collecting and keeping acorns over 

 winter was well known in 1579, as is evidenced by the 

 Hohenlohe Forest Ordinance, which advised fall sowing, 

 but, if that did not prove successful, to prepare the 

 ground in summer, leave it through the winter and sow 

 in the spring. 



While in earlier times sowing seems to have had the 

 preference, at a later period planting was practiced, at 

 first with wildlings, but as early as 1603 we find mention 

 of oak nurseries. 



The Prussian Order of 1720 ordered the foresters to 

 plant oaks in the openings before Christmas, for which 

 they were to be paid, if the trees were found alive after 

 three years. The growing and culture of oak also inter- 

 ested Frederick the Great, who ordered its extension 

 everywhere. Very explicit and correct rules for grow- 

 ing and transplanting them, and some to which we would 

 not subscribe, were given in the books of the 18th 

 century. Among the planting methods we find in 1719 

 and again in 1776 one similar to the Manteuffel method 

 of planting in mounds. 



While oak culture was especially fostered in Xorth- 

 westem Germany, the cultivation of conifers first re- 

 ceived attention in the southwest, and in the same 

 manner which was inaugurated by the Nuremberg seed 

 dealer in 1368. A new idea, introduced in the Palatine 

 Forest Ordinance (1565) and in the Bavarian Forest 

 Ordinance (1568), was the prescription, to soak the seed 

 before use and sow mixed with sawdust or sand, bringing 

 the seed under with brush or iron rakes. 



Carlowitz (1713) taught well the methods of collect- 

 ing, extracting and keeping the seed, and even proposes 



