Canadian Forestry Journal, June, Jpi6. 575 



The first feature which struck me was the very great number or roads. 

 Nearly ten per cent, of the area is in roads. A plan of the forest looks like 

 a city map. The roads are placed in all Dutch forests. 130 yards apart, 

 both for purposes of fire protection and to reduce to a minimum the cost 

 of removing the thinnings. The characteristic of the Liesbosch is that 400 

 years of growing oak both as standards and as coppice with practically no 

 underplanting for soil cover has robbed the soil of all humus. Therefore, 

 since the administration was started in 1S90 the policy has been to make 

 the improvement of the soil the first consideration. 



The Forester has two classes of oak forest to deal with : — ■ 



(1) The pure stands planted before 1840. 



(2) The coppice with standards planted since 1840. 



The pure oak (Q. pedunculata) stands planted before 1840 are very 

 open and the soil is unprotected and devoid of humus. These stands are 

 being underplanted with beech and chestnut, which greatly add to the 

 humus, and in a few years visibly afifect the rate of height growth in the 

 oak standards. 



The coppice forests are being converted to high forest as quickly as 

 possible by cutting out the coppice and holding over the most promising 

 trees for the production of standards. As a result of this policy, since 1890 

 a comparatively large area of coppice has been converted to oak standards. 

 It is interesting to note that the forests, which under French influence in 

 Holland two to three generations ago were converted to coppice, are now 

 under German influence being converted from coppice to standards. The 

 Dutch are following in forestry the German practise very closely. 



The prices received for oak timber are so high that there is no inclina- 

 tion on the part of the Dutch foresters to change the composition of their 

 oak forests. The oak is cut at 140 years when 500 to 600 cubic feet per 

 acre is the average production. The timber is sold in stump for $0.34 to 

 $0.35 per cubic foot, and everything is measured. If the timber is very 

 straight and suitable for piling in the canals and harbors $0.50 or more 

 is secured. The coppice or underplanting is cut and sold the year before 

 the oak is to be cut. This also is sold, small stuff 3 to 4 inches in diameter 

 selling for $0.22 to $0.29 per cubic foot. Oak is greatly valued because of 

 the use of the bark for tanning. After the timber has been cut and the 

 stumps dug out and sold, a crop of lupine, followed by a crop of rye, is 

 grown to enrich the soil. Then the ground is planted again with oak in- 

 mixture with beech and elm, the intention being that a pure stand of oak 

 will be produced with an understorey of shading and humus producing 

 trees. The Liesboch of less than 497 acres of forest is managed on a sus- 

 tained annual yield basis. The net annual revenue is $4.85 per acre. 



A Scofcli Pine Stand Described. 



The other important forest in the district of the Maasbosch is almost 

 wholly Scotspine, in very bad condition through having grown a pure 

 open stand of Scotch pine without any understorey in soil protection for 

 hundreds of years. The problem here is also to improve the soil and thus 

 improve the yield. This forest of 1086 acres is divided by roads into 250 

 small tracts, in each of which the age and natural condition is different. 

 The contents and rate of growth of the forest have been carefully meas- 

 ured, and of the 58.245 cubic feet that are produced each year, 54,715 cubic 

 feet are cut. The timber to be cut is taken each year from the section of 

 the forest that is in poorest condition. The tracts cut vary in age from 

 100 to 120 years. The stand is so very open that the soil, which is sandy, 

 has become covered with berries and heath. The forester sells this heath 



