15-1 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



* 



: -, -'.. 



Photo by F. F. Moon. 



BRUSH BURNING ON SCLUFFERSCHAFTSWALD, BLACK FOREST. BRUSH IS PILED AND 

 BURNED ON SITES WHERE IT COVERS THE GROUND TOO DENSELY TO PERMIT 

 NATURAL REGENERATION. 



white pine can only be made if the area 

 is fenced ; a rather expensive operation 

 and one apt to discourage the use of this 

 species. 



A certain amount of planting of na- 

 tive species is done where natural re- 

 generation happens to be faulty. The 

 seedlings used in this work are raised 

 on the nursery of the City Forester, and 

 while their methods differ from Ameri- 

 can nursery practice (they use high 

 shade entirely and believe in limiting 

 the number of seedlings per square 

 foot of nursery bed since it costs less 

 for seed and they maintain that close 

 competition weakens the young plants), 

 the young seedlings and transplants are 

 extremely thrifty looking and the cost 

 astonishingly cheap. (Five-year-old 

 spruce transplants are raised by Forst- 

 meister Neukirch at a cost of $1.38 per 

 thousand.) 



The annual cut of the forest averages 

 about 21,000 cubic meters, about 32 

 cubic feet per acre per year, which 

 brings a gross revenue of $76,000 and a 

 net financial yield of $54,000 which 

 adds considerably to the budget of the 



city fathers. It might be said in pass- 

 ing that this record is far surpassed by 

 the financial results obtained on the 

 Communal Forest of the town of Gaul- 

 sheim, Baden, a small village in the 

 Black Forest, located next to Forbach 

 in the Murg Valley. This village of 

 800 inhabitants has owned a communal 

 forest of 2.000 acres for some centuries 

 from which it gets enough revenue to 

 pay the operating expenses of the forest, 

 the running expenses of the village it- 

 self and besides declares a yearly divi- 

 dend of $4 to each inhabitant. 



With the above facts in mind it is 

 not at all surprising that some of our 

 most progressive States have passed 

 laws enabling towns and cities to acquire 

 land to be operated as City Forests. The 

 growth of this idea will mean much to- 

 ward the spread of forestry and the 

 better use of land. Many a town in the 

 Northeastern States could profit by the 

 example of Villingen and Gaulsheim 

 and get a substantial revenue from ad- 

 joining areas now considered waste 

 land ; incidentally the appearance of the 



