SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BLACK FOREST 



35 



Photo by F. F. Moon. 



FINAL APPEARANCE OF SELECTION METHOD, SCLUFFERSCHAFTSWALD FORR.U II. 



BADEN. ALL OF OLD TIMBER REMOVED. 



environs would be vastly improved in 

 most cases. 



From Villingen, following the regu- 

 lar route we pass through Triberg, a 

 Forstamt of comparatively small im- 

 portance but noted for possessing, in the 

 Falls of the Gutach, the most superb 

 cataract in western Germany. 



From Triberg to Rastatt there is little 

 of interest, but at the latter place we 

 tap the valley of the Murg, celebrated 

 for the superb ship timbers it furnished 

 in times past to the ship builders of the 

 Lower Rhine and Holland. 



At Forbach in the Murgthal, condi- 

 tions w r ere met which were of especial 

 interest on account of the close resem- 

 blance they bore to our Adirondacks, 

 countries, of course, excepted. The 

 soil is thin, slopes are steep, rain fall 

 sufficient for purposes of regeneration 

 and the past treatment astonishingly 

 like that of the North Woods. 



The original owners cut their timber 

 and floated it down the Murg and via 

 the Rhine to Holland, and on account 

 of the heavy transportation costs and 

 toll charges levied by the various prin- 

 cipalities, etc., through which they 



passed, only the timber most accessi- 

 ble, and the best of that, was cut. This 

 led to heavy overcutting of the lower 

 slopes followed in some cases by fire 

 and the upper slopes remaining un- 

 touched went ahead accumulating for- 

 est capital. 



From 1840-1860 various portions of 

 the old Schifferschaftswald were pur- 

 chased and brought under the manage- 

 ment of a stock company of which th* 

 Duchy of Baden holds the controlling 

 interest ; the forester in charge, is there- 

 fore a state official. The part of this 

 amalgamated forest, known as Forbach 

 II containing 12,000 acres is in many 

 respects the most interesting forest, to 

 an American at least, in all Germany. 

 In the first place it is composed chiefly 

 of conifers like the forest of Maine and 

 the Adirondacks; it had been more or 

 less abused in the past by overcutting 

 and some burning : the timber on the 

 upper slopes was over ripe and deteri- 

 orating when it was put under the con- 

 trol of the State. Conditions having a 

 very similar sound to those that obtain 

 in some of the Northeastern States. 



Their method of attacking the prob- 



