266 



NATURE 



[July 23, 1891 



parts of the globe has, in many instances, led to the adop- 

 tion of similar methods ; hence Dr. Schlich was right in 

 selecting the timber trees of Europe to illustrate the 

 application of these principles in the manual before us. 



Sylviculture, the author explains, is the formation and 

 tending of woods, and he divides his subject into four 

 chapters. The first of these chapters treats of preliminary 

 works, such as choice of species, fencing and reclamation 

 of the soil by draining, the fixation of shifting sands, the 

 breaking through of an impermeable substratum (pan) 

 and the like. In regard to the fixation of shifting sands, 

 an interesting account is given on p. 33 of the methods 

 which have been most successfully practised on the west 

 coast of France, in order to stop the progress inland of 

 the coast dunes, and to clothe these ridges of rolling sand 

 with a productive forest of the cluster pine (/'/«/^.y Pinaster). 

 A belt, in many places five miles wide, along the coast of 

 Gascony, and considerably further north, has in this 

 manner been reclaimed, and the steady progress of the 

 sand, which had covered large areas of fields and meadows, 

 and which had destroyed numerous villages, has thus been 

 arrested. 



Chipter ii. deals with the formation of woods by 

 artificial and natural means. The Spessart, which has 

 been mentioned above, is an instance in which both 

 artificial and natural means are used in order to effect 

 the regeneration of the forest, so as to insure the pro- 

 duction of timber of the highest possible commercial 

 value. In most large forest districts on the continent of 

 Europe, both the natural and artificial method are 

 employed. As the author says on p. 178, neither the one 

 nor the other system " is the best at all times and under 

 any circumstances ; only a consideration of the local 

 conditions can lead to a sound decision as to which is 

 preferable in a given case." In France, for instance, a 

 country highly favoured by a climate uniformly moist 

 and mild, where most forest trees produce seed more 

 frequently than in Germany, natural reproduction may, 

 broadly speaking, be said to be the rule and planting the 

 exception. But in France, also, planting operations on a 

 large scale have been carried out on the dunes of the 

 west coast as well as on bare mountain-sides of the Alps, 

 the Cevennes, and the Pyrenees, and, wherever neces- 

 sary, planting is resorted to, to supplement the natural 

 regeneration of the forests. 



An instance in which over a large extent of country the 

 forests are regenerated artificially may be found in the 

 State forests of the kingdom of Saxony, together with most 

 of the communal and many of the private forests in that 

 country. The State forests of Saxony cover an area of 

 432,000 acres, and by far the larger portion of this area is 

 stocked with pure spruce forest treated on a short rotation 

 of eighty years, and regenerated artificially by planting. 

 The high prices realized in this industrious and thickly 

 populated country, even for timber of small sizes, have 

 gradually led to the adoption of this system ; and the 

 State forests of the kingdom of Saxony are a pattern of 

 methodical and most successful management. The forest 

 ranges, all in charge of highly trained superior forest 

 officers, are small, containing not more than 2000 to 3000 

 acres each, and many of these ranges have a steady regu- 

 lar annual yield of 140 cubic feet of timber per acre, and 

 furnish a net revenue, after deducting all charges, general 

 NO. 1 1 34, VOL. 44] 



and local, of 100 marks per hectare, which corresponds 

 to forty shillings an acre. 



But in Great Britain also, and in Scotland especially, is 

 the system of rearing forests by planting well understood, 

 and it is practised over large areas economically and suc- 

 cessfully. French as well as German foresters of great 

 practical experience have repeatedly expressed their high 

 sense of the skill and ability with which large plantations 

 are formed in Great Britain at a comparatively moderate 

 cost. But even foresters and wood-managers in Great 

 Britain may learn a good deal from this portion of Dr. 

 Schlich's book. Their attention might specially be 

 directed to the author's remarks on p. 113, regarding 

 transplants which have developed a lopsided root system, 

 "because the trenches, into which the pricked out seed- 

 lings are placed, are often made so shallow, that the root 

 system of the plants, instead of assuming a natural posi- 

 tion in the ground, is altogether bent to one side." 



That section of the second chapter which deals with the 

 natural regeneration of woods, necessarily divides itself 

 into two portions : first, natural regeneration by seed ; and 

 second, by shoots and suckers (pollards and coppice). 

 Concise brevity is one of the great merits of Dr. Schlich's 

 manual, and it doubtless was necessary to curtail, and to 

 make a rigid selection of the most important matters. But 

 the treatment of coppice woods and of coppice under 

 standards might perhaps have been a little less brief. 



As regards natural regeneration by seed, the Black 

 Forest in South- Western Germany may be quoted as an 

 instance where, over extensive areas, the forest is chiefly 

 regenerated by natural means. The splendid logs of spruce 

 and silver fir, which are floated down the Rhine in num- 

 berless huge rafts, have all grown from self-sown seedlings, 

 and most of the young timber now growing up has had the 

 same origin. The timber which is brought to market from 

 these forests is much older and heavier than that sold in the 

 forests of Saxony, but the results of management are to 

 some extent similar. There are some forest ranges in the 

 Schwarzwald, both in the grand-duchy of Baden and in 

 the kingdom of Wiirttemberg, which yield the same 

 annual quantity of timber per acre, and furnish the same 

 rate of net revenue to their proprietors, as those of Saxony. 

 The term of rotation, of course, is much longer, and the 

 system of natural reproduction takes time, hence the 

 money value of the growing stock of old timber is very 

 large, much larger per acre than in Saxony. The interest, 

 therefore, on the capital invested (value of land plus grow- 

 ing crop) is less in this case. The discussion of these 

 matters, however, does not appertain to sylviculture, but to 

 forest management, with which the author will deal in a 

 subsequent volume of his work. 



As already mentioned, in France the natural regenera- 

 tion of forests is the rule, chiefly owing to its wonderfully 

 favourable climate. Large areas, mainly of private and 

 communal forest, are managed in admirable style, as cop- 

 pice woods and as coppice under standards. The treat- 

 ment of high timber forests also, and their regeneration 

 from self-sown seedlings, by means of a regular system of 

 successive cuttings, has in France been brought to a high 

 state of perfection. This circumstance renders the 

 French forests specially valuable as a field of instruction 

 for foresters proceeding to India. For in that large 

 country, though planting has been commenced and must 



