5:31" FOKEST-FODDEl!. 



sheep will cut any broacl-lciived species, whilst horned cattle are 

 more discriniiiiating ; as a rule, leat-fodder serves in Germany 

 for the winter food of sheep and goats. The remark is hardly 

 required, that the use of leaf- fodder is highly prejudicial to the 

 growth of trees. A tree can only dispense ^ith its foliage after 

 the processes of transformation and assimilation are over, and 

 that is shortly before leaf-fall. As, however, the nutritive value 

 of foliage [other than that of evergreen trees and shrubs which 

 store nutritive material in their leaves during winter. — Tr.] late 

 in the autumn is very small, and farmers wish to use it as early 

 as possible, the use of leaf-fodder must, from a forest point of 

 view be regarded as highly prejudicial. Little is to be gained 

 by permitting foliage to be plucked only after the buds have 

 been formed for the succeeding year's crop, for the preparation 

 and storage of reserve nutritive material for that year's wood 

 is thus prevented. With the exception of a general scarcity 

 of fodder, when in many districts the foliage of trees afford 

 the only means of saving the lives of the cattle (in Hungary 

 1863, Fichtelgebirge 1887, and France 1893), the use of leaf- 

 fodder should as far as possible be prohibited. In Switzer- 

 land (Canton Wallis) oak-pollards are regularly lopped for goat 

 fodder. 



[Similarly, in the centre and south of France. In the Himalayas, 

 evergreen oaks, elms, wild i)lum-trees, Celtis, itc. and even spruce-trees 

 are regularly pollarded for cattle-fodder, and the ])ractice prevails witli 

 other species in various parts of India. Kules on this subject, for 

 the protection of the trees, are given in Manual of Forestry, vol. 4, 

 p. 25.— Th.] 



Leaf-fodder is harvested chiefly in coppice and from pollards, 

 the leaves being either plucked by hand, or the young shoots 

 cut, tied into bundles and dried quickly in order to prevent the 

 leaves from fulling, Tlie wilting twigs and foliage are placed 

 under cover in an airy place, or kept in loosely piled stacks. 

 One hundred and fifty kilograms of leaf-fodder (330 lbs.) ex- 

 clusive of branches, is considered equivalent to 100 kilos (220 

 lbs.) of hay of average quality ; a bushel of leaf-fodder, including 

 twigs, contains, for oak, 40%, for sallows, 00% of nutritive 

 substance. In the lower Ilhine-valley, and along the Moselle, 



