69 



I 



In order to determine the annual yield of forests managed under the 

 selection system it is necessary to measure the old timber over the entire area, 

 and the work cannot be shortened by the examination of sample plots. Thus, at 

 the renewal of the working plan for the Schifferschaft forests in 1886, all large 

 trees (in diarn. 15 c. m. -- -- 6 inches and upwards) were measured on 85 per cent, 

 of the total area. This was accomplished in two working seasons by two valua- 

 tion officers, an immense and most difficult piece of work, considering the dense 

 underwood of young growth which in most places covers the ground under the 

 old trees. The volume of the smaller trees was estimated, and the total growing 

 stock was thus determined at 1,912,244 cubic metres, exceeding the normal growing 

 stock by 232,688 cubic metres. The rotation for this forest range was fixed at 

 120 years, and upon these data the annual yield was fixed at 32,000 cubic metres, 

 or 6.43 cubic metres per hectare. The average growing stock was 382 cubic 

 metres, but in many compartments the volume of timber exceeds 700 cubic 

 metres per hectare.* 



In 1886 the sanctioned yield of the Schifferschaff forests was not fully 

 worked up to, whereas, in Forbach I, there was an excess of 2,200 cubic metres 

 over the sanctioned yield, caused partly by the timber cut for road-making, 

 partly by some extraordinary requirements of the village of Forbach. 



In the Herrenwies range the plan is, not to continue the system of selection 

 fellings, but gradually to introduce the system of felling by compartments 

 (schlagwirthschaft), and in some portions of this range considerable progress has 

 been made in this respect. Large areas are now stocked with uniform thickets 

 up to twenty years old, while others are stocked with pole forests, so that in 

 places a regular gradation of ages has been brought about. This has been 

 accomplished by the gradual removal of the old trees, under the shelter of which 

 the young growth had come up. 



The rotation here, as in the two other forest ranges, has been fixed at 120 

 years, and it is intended that the period assigned to the cutting out of the old 

 timber and the regeneration of the forest is eventually to occupy thirty to forty 

 years. 



Considering the enormous area of the forests, it is remarkable that all the 

 timber in them can be sold. Underground wood, however, finds no purchaser 

 anywhere in these forests, and only in the vicinity of the villages will people 

 undertake to root up the stumps on taking away the wood without payment. 

 The removal of tops and branches is free throughout these forests. The bark, 

 at present at least, is not sold, but is removed free with the branch wood. The 

 produce of thinnings formerly found a ready sale in the hop gardens of the 

 Hhine Valley, but the cultivation of hops has of late years greatly diminished, 

 and much of the small wood would remain unsaleable if numerous factories of 

 paper pulp had not. about fifteen years ago, been established in the Murg Valley. 

 This has opened a new demand not only for poles but also for small trees. At 

 present the paper pulp factories have a decided preference for spruce, and pay 

 more for clean stems without branch knots. 



At Schonmunzach, already mentioned as the first village of Wurtemberg 

 territory, is a large glass factory, which works with gas made from wood, and 

 this factory consumes annually a very large quantity of small wojd. It is not 

 improbable that hereafter the inferior kinds of wood produced in the fire-pro- 

 tected forests of India, which at present are unsaleable, may be used for the pro- 



* It would lead too far in these note? to discuss this question why the Murg Valley ranges here des- 

 cribed, possessing as they do unusually favorable conditions for the growth of spruce and silver fir, have a 

 smaller annual yield in material than the St. Blasien and Bonndorf Ranges in the southern Scharzwald. 



