196 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



using concerns of Germany. The forest comprises about 

 12,000 acres of land similar to our Adirondack mountain 

 region, said to be worth in the neighborhood of $300 an 

 acre, and there is probably almost as much timber grow- 

 ing on the land today as there was 700 years ago. 



Logging is carried on in a very interesting manner. 

 The trees to be cut are ail selected and marked in ad- 

 vance by the chief forester, who spends a hundred days 

 in the year solely in this way. The chief demand being 

 for very large timbers, he thins out the forest with this 

 end in view, taking the weaklings first and reserving the 

 very finest trees with plenty of light and air for rapid 

 growth. Many European foresters make all their cut- 

 tings on the basis of rather complicated rules and for- 

 mulas, but it is significant that here in one of the best 

 paying forests of the world the slogan is "not system but 

 common sense." In this way, the same patch of ground 

 is revisited for cutting about once every ten years. 



The cutting down of the trees has to be very skilfully 

 carried on, so that the falling giants will do as little dam- 

 age as possible to the natural growth of young trees be- 

 neath. They are never allowed to fall one across the 

 other, but one is generally removed so that another 

 may be thrown in the same spot. An operation which, 

 in America, usually causes more damage to the forest 

 than the actual felling is the dragging out of the logs. 

 Our steam donkey engines yank them in with such de- 

 termination that a veritable devastation is left behind, 

 but here in the German mountains where protection of 

 the young seedlings is of first importance, the loggers 

 are obliged to resort to somewhat slower and more ap- 

 propriate methods. Good permanent stone roads every- 

 where traversing the forest are required, but since they 

 are to do duty for generations, the cost of construction 

 is an investment which need be only very slowly written 

 off. These roads follow along the mountain sides in such 



GETTING OUT THE TIMBER 



1 he above pictures show the various operations involved in the delivery of logs and cord-wood to the roadways, with a minimum 

 oi mjiiry to the young growth. The size of the average log is well illustrated in the group of logs and loggers shown at the bottom 



