German Method of Forest Management. 147 
energy by timely interference, thereby securing not only a larger 
total and more valuable product for the present, but a repro- 
duction of only the best kinds for the future. 
In the well managed forests of Germany the undeserving spe- 
cies are exterminated and the most useful fostered, just as the 
agriculturist exterminates the weeds and cultivates the crop. 
Not only is the forest there confined to those soils and locations 
which cannot be used to better advantage or which require a 
forest cover in order to protect the soil against detrimental dis- 
Figure 1.—A German spruce Forest under management. 
placement, but it is so managed as to become a more and more 
raluable resource, a crop of increasing importance, under the 
management of skilled foresters, of whom, in a late debate on 
the floor of the Landtag of Prussia, it was said that “ While most 
other productive business has declined, the forest administration 
has steadily improved and yielded increasing revenues.” In fig- 
ure 1 is shown one of these protected German forests of spruce, 
as they grow, not planted, but naturally regenerated by skillful 
management and use of the axe. 
