1478 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



which has stopped the planting of white pine, has been 

 remedied effectively by the spraying of seedlings. In the 

 present demand for the speedy recreation of forest 

 nurseries the observation that sowing seed, gathered 

 early, avoids waiting over a year for germination, is a 

 valuable discovery. For this purpose ash seed pulled and 

 sown on August 16 grew best — a full bed — the succeed- 

 ing spring, but of October seed from the same tree none 

 grew till the following season. Hawthorne berries sown 

 on September 15 gave a good result, but delay was ex- 

 perienced when berries gathered in October were sown. 

 The significance of these points will be appreciated by 

 practical foresters. 



"From Soignes, with its vast tracts of matured timber, 

 nurseries and museums, the party moved to the Campine, 

 on the Dutch border, making the old town of Turnhout, 

 famous for its paper and playing card factories, its head- 

 quarters. The first day in this expansive sand belt was 

 spent in inspecting young forests of some 1,500 acres be- 

 longing to the board of agriculture. The whole of the 

 land was reclaimed from waste and the method adopted 

 in effecting the transformation, and the result as already 

 presented in the healthy and quick-growing alder firs 

 and birches, provide an instructive example of what can 

 be accomplished in converting apparently worthless sandy 

 tracts, slightly undulating, with the scanty herbage of 

 plants of our grouse moors and the home of ducks, curlew, 

 snipe and blackcock, into useful tree-bearing areas. Pre- 

 liminary cultivation and the growing of yellow lupines for 

 adding humus to the soil, formed important features in 

 the routine, and the conclusion is warranted from what 

 has already been achieved at this and other centers, that 

 the scope for successful afforestation is wide in all coun- 

 tries, and that it would be difficult to set limits to enter- 

 prises of the kind in the United Kingdom, if they were 

 planned and carried out on sound lines. 



"At the Raevels, reclamations, planting and preliminary 

 operations have been in abeyance since 1914, and the 

 director, M. Quermet, has been concentrating his attention 

 upon the management of the areas already planted; some 

 of which are carrying trees 10 and 12 years old. These 

 plantations, and those of neighboring owners, provide 

 interesting lessons in enlightened and systematic forestry. 



"Trees are planted in considerable variety and the rela- 

 tive results carefully noted. A Japanese larch plantation 

 at Esbeck visited the following day is especially worthy of 

 mention. At fifteen years old it is already of high value. 

 It was planted closely, the trees being only one meter 

 apart, and since then the suppressed trees alone have been 

 removed. At Raevals the planting of Sitka spruce has 

 been attended with success, when precautions were taken 

 to give it the shelter it requires in early life. Many 

 species are being tested, and when the young woods 

 afford sufficient humus other species, such as poplar, will 

 be introduced. The woods are mostly Scotch pine, but, 

 besides these, exotics are planted freely. There is no 

 falling off in vigor as time goes on, as is instanced by a 

 forty-year old pine plantation at Rethy, carrying 108 

 loads of pit wood per acre. The demand for firewood is 

 so extensive that all expenses of early thinning are re- 



couped from this market, and it was pointed out that 

 when it is desired to reclaim for agriculture land from 

 which wood has been felled the fuel value of the stumps 

 covered the cost of removing them. 



"The essential conditions of success appear to be pre- 

 liminary cultivation, manuring with lupines and chemical 

 manures, liming and surface draining. No farm crop 

 could be more responsive to suitable treatment of this de- 

 scription than the young plantations occupying the former 

 wastes of Campine have been. The work entails con- 

 siderable initial expenditure, but by thick and mixed 

 planting and the inclusion of undergrowth, such as alder, 

 the period during which the areas are unproductive is 

 curtailed and the financial problem appreciably simplified 

 for the state or private owner. 



"Other reclamation and afforestation enterprises in 

 the same province visited were those of Baron van Haver, 

 under the management of M. J. de Wilde, of the Utrecht 

 Insurance Company, at Esbeck, where M. C. Sissingh is 

 director and of the King of the Belgians, near Rethy, 

 under the supervision of M. R. van Elst. At all these 

 centers forestry constitutes only part of the general 

 scheme of reclamation and it is less prominent relatively at 

 Esbeck and on Baron van Haver's estate than at Raevals 

 and on the royal property. At both places, however, the 

 value of trees is appreciated as a direct source of wealth 

 and a part of composite improvement, and the work is 

 conducted on lines similar to those that have answered 

 so successfully elsewhere. 



"The king's estate of 10,000 acres is a noteworthy ex- 

 ample of intelligent and balanced reclamation. The work 

 was begun fifty years ago when the land was bought 

 from the different communes for Leopold I, at whose 

 death the property passed to the Count of Flanders and 

 in due course to the present king, and steady progress, 

 interrupted only during the war, has been made in de- 

 veloping' the property to the benefit of the district and 

 the country. Already operations have been resumed 

 upon the land that reverted to its former wild state in 

 the past few years." 



THE DOUGLAS FIR 

 By Donald A. Fraser 



Proud monarch of the West's green-fringed hills ! 



Majestic pillar of the sunset sky! 



In grim, dark gandeur thou dost raise on high 

 Thy tap'ring head to where the glory fills 

 The firmament. The roseate radiance thrills 



My soul not more than that weird melody 



The ocean breeze awakes mysteriously 

 Among thy boughs whenever it so wills. 

 Long centuries have scored thy rugged side 



With gashes rude and deep; thy wounded heart 

 Hath shed great tears, and these, congealing, 

 hide, 



Or strive to hide, the gaping rents in part; 

 And centuries more thou still might'st stand 

 in pride, 



But envious man now claims thee for his mart. 



