1,% 



11h- forester considers turfed land as a faxorin^ factor, since it retains the 

 water of precipitation and by the quick evaporation withdraws the water of 

 the subsoil. Places almost circular are sometimes found in forests about the 

 base of the trunks where no second growth lives. This circumstance is 

 ascribed to the reflection of the sun's rays from the smooth barked, branch- 

 less trunks (beeches, birches, firs). The sun rays flashed from the mirror- 

 like bark dry the soil to a great extent. This condition can be overcome by 

 various means, among which growing plants by natural seeding is recom- 

 mended, since the plants so produced will adapt themselves to the locality. In 

 places, which must be i)lante(l, material should be used which has been 

 transplanted once in the nursery and, after the plants are set out, the soil 

 should be shaded most carefully. Besides this, all conditions should be con- 

 sidered which in general may be recommended for overcoming the lack 

 of moisture, such as the protection of seed beds by walls, fences, rows of 

 trees, or by closely set brush, hilling and especially breaking up the soil, or 

 even fertilizing, since this means a saving of water. Sprinkling with water 

 is advisable only in the most extreme cases of necessity. In brushing the 

 edges of the beds the use of conifers, especially the Weymouth Pine, is 

 most to be recommended, for spruce brush sheds its needles too c]uickly 

 and makes a warmer cover. Fir may easily be set too densely and the 

 leaves on branches of deciduous trees wilt too cjuickly. hence they do not 

 afford shade to the soil which dries out too rapidly. 



W'ollny has shown by experiments that seed and turf burn out if sown 

 too tliick, while vegetation on the same plot of land remains uninjured 

 if the growth is more broken. 



He found that when the seed had been sown with a drill the soil be- 

 tween the rows lost less water than that in the rows themselves and the 

 further the plants stood from one another, the more water w'as retained in 

 the rows as well as between them. Therefore, the proper adjustment of the 

 quantity of seed to be sown on soils poor in water, will also assist in correct- 

 ing injury due to drought\ 



Only in very definite cases can an overplanted soil be proved more ad- 

 vantageous than bare soil. By an open growth of short-lived plants as a 

 cover crop, w^ater can be retained on sandy soils for later seeds. If seeding 

 of the quick growing plants takes place in the autumn or early spring, the 

 time these plants most need water will come during the autumnal or spring 

 wet season, so that when the dry season comes, they are ready to set fruit 

 and require relatively little water; — rather, by shading the soil and by the 

 forming of dew. they retain for the more superficial layers a pretty even 

 moisture in which seeds sown later, and also delicate seedlings, can be 

 developed which otherwise would have dried u]i on bare soil. 



Forest Litter. 

 It should not be forgotten that any covering of the soil retards the 

 aeration of the land and therefore, for the maintenance of fertilitv, the 



1 Oesterr. landw. Woehenblatt. ISSO, p. 233. 



