GERMAN COMMENT ON FRENCH FORESTRY 479 



storms were equally well protected in the case of large and small cuttings, differences in 

 the conduct of the storm which are due to other causes would be apparent. In the case 

 of a large number of small cuttings there are formed more openings in the stand in which 

 a storm can attack. However, there are many other serious results of larger cuttings 

 which become evident by trial. Many insects appear in destructive numbers. The 

 damage from weeds, frost, and heat is greater the larger the cuttings. For tender species 

 which grow slowly in the juvenile stage it is an acknowledged principle of management 

 to avoid large clear cuttings. 



The method of managing the Saxon State forests seems much better in this regard. 

 It has the great advantage that the cuttings are kept small and gradually arranged to- 

 gether in rows. The young growth has the benefit of the protection from the standing 

 trees. In relation to market conditions, also, and other factors which must be taken 

 into consideration in practical management, the method of small cuttings with the 

 possibility of a change in the manner of utilization is a desideratum. As far as storms 

 are concerned the superiority claimed for the Saxon method by its advocates is not to 

 be accepted without qualification. If the direction is known from which destructive 

 storms are .to be expected in the future it is possible to protect the stand by means 

 of the methods of felling and making severance cuttings which are peculiar to the Saxon 

 system. But this cannot be determined. Storm statistics " recently published show 

 that even easterly storms have frequently done considerable damage. If, in spite of 

 this fact, future efforts in forest management shall still be directed to protecting against 

 westerly storms as far as possible, the chance of damage by storms coming from the 

 opposite direction must also be reckoned with. Openings made in the stand by sever- 

 ance cuttings and fellings for the strengthening of borders exposed to western winds 

 would, however, appear hazardous. The undesirable consequences which may be 

 bound up with a system of severance cuttings are truly pointed out by the advocates 

 of the Saxon method of managing State forests. Oberforster (Supervisor) August a 

 few years ago wrote an article on the effect of southeast storms in the Olbernhau Revier 

 (range) (Erzgebirge) . He made the comment that: "The damage (which the south- 

 east storms have caused) would not be so great if it were not for the fact that on the 

 Olbernhau Revier one of the chief objects of the Saxon method of forest management, 

 the creation of a large number of short cutting series, had been practically attained. 

 Over large areas cuttings have been made in every division {Abteilung) within a decade; 

 and as desirable as these are for establishing regeneration areas, for replanting, etc., yet 

 in this case many reproduction cuttings begun at the eastern side have proved dis- 

 astrous." The relation that tearing the stand to pieces bears to damage by storms can- 

 not be more strikingly presented. It is to be added, however, that the damage caused 

 by storm under the Saxon management will never have such great dimensions as is the 

 case under the French method of making cuttings. Any careful investigation will 

 substantiate this. Communications from Saxony have often confessed to damage from 

 storms. But their effects are on a smaller scale than in the Vosges and other forest 

 regions with extensive homogeneous areas of veteran forest. The favorable results of 

 Saxon management are not to be accounted for by the physiological characteristics of 

 the species — in Saxony the non-storm-resisting spruce predominates — but by the 

 conditions of growth secured by the forest organization. 



If the foregoing arguments are, in the main, susceptible of proof, yet it must not be 

 forgotten that in this, as in most other forest regions, the extremes are necessarily the 

 best methods. The proper economic management is often to be found nearer the mean. 

 The French method of grouping must be unconditionally discarded. But even in regard 

 to too strict a separation of age classes it is worth while making the observations men- 



11 Bargmann, Allgem. Forst- and Jagdzeitung, 1904, p. 84. 



