156 FOREST PLANTING. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FOREST PLANTING ON HIGH MOORS. 



It is an undisputed fact that an area covered with the 

 richest humus, if exposed to continual moisture, will 

 soon lose its fertility, and all plant-life on it will die, as 

 the stagnant water thoroughly chills the soil and leeches 

 out every particle of plant-food. Upon the remains of 

 the destroyed vegetation, first peat-mosses, unci later, 

 more developed aquatic plants make their appearance. 

 These continually die off, only to let others spring up 

 again, and in the fulness of time, they reach such an 

 elevated position as to be in want of necessary humidity. 

 The remainder of these plants, on account of their sub- 

 mersion and of the antiseptic property of the humic acid 

 contained in the water do not fully decay, but accumu- 

 late during many years and finally form a thick moss- 

 turf (cover of the moor) upon which some of the ericaeas 

 appear, together with other plants which are content 

 with a moist moor ground and sour humus. As long as 

 the bottom of a moor is being raised by this accretion, 

 the moor extends further on over the margins and 

 becomes larger, for the original vegetation of the borders 

 also dies out, owing to the increased swampy condition 

 into which the surrounding margin of the moor has been 

 brought, giving way to the mosses. The central part 

 of these moors, having grown up for a longer time than 

 the margins (which always extend laterally) usually has 

 a higher situation than the borders and is, therefore, 

 called in Germany High Moor and in England Moss- 

 land. The vegetation thereon principally consists of 



