FIELD-CROPS IN FORESTS. 530 



Thus, in many Scotch pine districts, the felling-areas with 

 reserved standard trees standing on them are leased in lots for 

 one year's cereal cultivation, in order that the soil may be 

 thoroughly loosened for natural regeneration of the Scotch pine. 

 The soil must not then be too matted with weeds or roots if the 

 cost of cultivation is to be covered by only one year's crop. In 

 some cases, in order to supply a certain amount of transitory 

 freshness to a poor, di-y, sandy soil, the area after cultivation is 

 sown with lucerne, which is cut-down and ploughed-in as soon 

 as it is in full bloom ; corn is then sown, and in the third year 

 either Scotch pine seed sown, or another fodder-crop of lupines 

 harvested before this is done. As now-a-days Scotch pine culture 

 is frequently combined with that of field-crops, so it was formerly 

 the case with pure oak-woods. In nearly all German countries 

 there are forest compartments termed acorn gardens {Eichel- 

 gdrten), which were formerly cultivated with field-crops for 

 several years, acorns being sown with the last crop, and the area 

 again surrendered to forestry. In Upper Bavaria spruce plants 

 with balls of earth round their roots are planted in laud which 

 has been cropped with oats. The land is cleared, cultivated, 

 and oats sown in the spring. In the second year a crop of 

 potatoes is reared ; in the third year another crop of oats mixed 

 ■svith spruce seed. From the fourth to the sixth year the 

 spruce seedlings are utilized as transplants with balls of earth, 

 and planted in lines on the area and on other neighbouring 

 cleared strips. 



4. Simultaneous Cultivation of Forest and Field-Crops. 



In the above-mentioned systems the felling-area is abandoned 

 to agriculture for several years, and the cultivation of a forest 

 crop commences only after the last field-crop has been harvested. 

 The wood-increment is therefore lost during the years occupied 

 by the field-crops. There are, however, other methods in which 

 there is no interruption in the production of wood, and the 

 field-crop is merely intended to assist the latter. The two most 

 important varieties of this method are termed in German, 

 Hachcald and Waldfeldhau-Betrieh. 



(a) Hackwald. — This is a combination of field-crops and 



