298 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CHARCOAL KILN IN THE SPESSART MOUNTAINS. 

 THEY RECEIVE ABOUT ONE AND A QUARTER CENTS PER CUBIC FOOT FOR THEIR LOPWOOD. 



THE HARDWOODS OF THE SPESSARTS 



By F. F. MOON, M. F. 



THE statement was made a short 

 time ago by no less an authority 

 than Mr. Pinchot, that up to the 

 present time, in comparatively 

 few instances has timber ever brought 

 a price in the United States equal to the 

 cost of production. A trip to the great 

 hardwood region of Germany, the 

 Spessart Mountains of Hessen, proves 

 this statement beyond cavil. 



The Spessart Mountains are located 

 in the^bend of the Main River, are sterile 

 as to soil, inclement as to weather, and 

 unsuited for agriculture, but at present 

 constitute a resource of enormous value, 

 since they produce the bulk of the fine 

 hardwoods for the German Empire. 

 One-third of this region is devoted to 

 timber production, and forestry and 

 mining are the chief sources of employ- 

 ment for the inhabitants. 



The development of this region as a 

 broad commercial forestry proposition 

 is of comparatively recent date as 

 measured by their standards, regular 

 silvicultural methods having been intro- 

 duced about 1813. Previous to this 

 time it had been used chiefly for a 

 hunting preserve by the archbishops of 

 Mainz. Even now portions of it furnish 

 superior boar shooting, the Prince 



Regent of Bavaria owning a large tract, 

 completely fenced, near Rothenbuch. 



When the church property passed 

 into the hands of the state, the desultory 

 methods were replaced by more scien- 

 tific forms of management so that at 

 present we find them handling these non- 

 agricultural lands in an up-to-date 

 manner instead of using methods that 

 had their chief sanction from custom. 

 Even now they realize that the rotations 

 used in the past are entirely too long 

 when the financial returns are taken into 

 consideration, and that the mature 

 stands of oaks and beeches, ranging 

 in age from 800-1,000 years, while 

 picturesque in the extreme, are not 

 financially profitable, in spite of the 

 high stumpage prices that prevail. 



The revier at Rothenbuch gives a 

 good idea of conditions and practices 

 prevailing in this region. Mature forests 

 are being rapidly cut off and replaced 

 by seedling stands of oak and beech. 

 Direct seeding is the chief method used 

 in getting the stands started. The rows, 

 approximately 1.5 meters apart, are 

 hacked with a grub hoe at an average 

 cost of about 30 marks per hectare ($3 

 per acre), then the acorns are put in 

 with a dibble at an additional cost of 



