CtO-Z FOREST LITTER. 



woody part of the plants may be more or less used. A roufjhly 

 stacked cubic meter (35"3 cubic feet) of heather weighs about 

 ()() kilos (84 lbs. a cubic foot), so that 2^ to 3 waggou-loads of 

 heather, or 1^ waggon-loads of broom, per acre, may be con- 

 sidered a good crop. 



[From the New Forest, besides tlie litter from ferns and heather 

 about GOO cart-loads of dead grass are sold annually at Is. per load. 

 Sedge-grass is also sold from Windsor Forest at 2s. a cart-load. — Tr.] 



4. Grrcii Bmncht's for Litter. 



In many districts the green branches of conifers are esteemed 

 as litter. They are cut from standing as well as felled trees. 

 In no kind of litter is the yield more variable, owing to the 

 different ways in which the branches are cut. Its amount also 

 varies with the species of tree, the system of management, the 

 age of the woods, and especially with the question whether the 

 branches are cut from mature trees nearly fit for felling, or from 

 younger woods, and finally what amount of the crown of the 

 trees is taken. 



The amount of branch-litter depends in the first place on the 

 species of tree, as the densely needled silver-fir can yield more 

 litter than the spruce, and the latter more than the Scotch pine. 

 Kamilication in the silver-fir and spruce consists merely in 

 small branches s])ringing from the bole, whilst in Scotch pine 

 the bole subdivides into boughs, so that besides having little 

 foliage, the Scotch pine affords much branchwood which cannot 

 be utilized as litter. The silver-fir and spruce have also far 

 more twigs than the Scotch pine. 



As regards system of management, selection-forest yields much 

 more branch-litter than even-aged woods, and the use of branch- 

 litter is chiefly confined to districts where selection-forests 

 predominate. (The Tyrol, Swiss Alps, private forests in 

 the Fichtelgebirge, Schwarzwald, &c.) There is much dif- 

 ference when branch-litter is taken from mature trees ready 

 for felling, or a young pole-wood is thus utilized at regular 

 intervals. Many Alpine forests have thus been rendered so 

 unproductive as to be no longer capable of supplying even 

 a moderate demand for branch-litter. In Fmuconia, the 



