APPENDIX ■ 331 



hundreds of years old, of magnificent proportions and excellent 



quality. In California the great sequoia-trees of Mariposa are 



computed to be 11,000 years old, and in Japan the cryptomerias 



are of immense age. In India I have seen cedar-trees {deodard) 



40 feet in girth and 250 feet high, the age of which must be 1,000 



years or more ; and the mature spruce, cypress, and silver firs of 



the upper Himalayan forests, judging from the number of their 



rings, are often 350 years old. The chir and other indigenous 



pines are not found so old, but I have counted the rings of many 



first-class trees and found them all over 120 years, and often 



260. In fact good timber cannot be grown rapidly. 



The length of forest rotations proved by experience to be Lengths of 



° '■ . rotation deter- 



correct in Germany and France varies, accordmg to the capacity mined. 



of the soil for growing the best construction timber or inferior 



prop-wood or firing, from 250 to 70 years. The oak and beech 



forests of the Spessart have a rotation of 250 years for the oak and 



half that for the beech. The Hochwald systems in Germany and 



France have rotations of from 100 to 120 years, while the inferior 



lands, which grow coarse timber, are worked on the lowest 70 



years' period. In the common or village forests, which are under 



State management, 70 to 100 years is prescribed, as only farm 



timber and firewood are grown. 



The quantity of timber which can be produced on the ground 



in a properly managed forest may also be learnt from Nature. I Quantity of 



^ -^ ° . . timber carried 



counted for years the trees per acre growmg m the Himalayan per acre, 

 natural forests. The average of one kind over considerable areas 

 did not come to more than thirty trees per acre, owing to the con- 

 formation of the hills and the patchy reproduction of each kind ; 

 but on suitable hill-slopes, where the spruce and silver fir occupied 

 the soil, I often counted 100 first-class trees growing on an acre, 

 besides all the saplings not counted. These were truly noble 

 giants of the forest, ranging from trees over 6 feet in girth to older 

 patriarchs of 12, and 200 feet high; having never been thinned 

 out, the stems were free from side branches for 100 feet. The 

 amount of the timber of the highest quality on an acre could not 

 have been less than 20,000 cubic feet. This in forest where 

 there was no management at all except that of Nature. In Hoch- 

 wald forests, managed scientifically, Dr. Schlich* states that the 



* ' Manual of Forestry,' page 226. 



