May 30, 1S94.] 



Garden and Forest. 



219 



task, to work the forest in such a manner as not to dimin- 

 ish, but rather, if possible, to increase the proportion of 

 the more valuable kinds. An account of some of these 

 German forests and the approved methods of regenerating 

 them ought, therefore, to be instructive to American readers. 



SPESSART — GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



The Spessart selected for illustration is in Franconia, and 

 its highest point, the Geiersberg, being 1,900 feet above 

 sea-level. The prevailing rock is new red sandstone, and 

 the hills have rounded outlines, mostly with gentle slopes. 

 The soil is a light, sandy loam, of itself not very fertile, but 

 fortunately enriched by a large admixture of vegetable- 

 mold, the result of uninterrupted forest-growths during 

 thousands of years. This soil, where deep, is capable of 

 producing tall cylindrical, well-shaped stems. From the 

 top of the Geiersberg the surrounding country presents 

 itself as a boundless sea of forest, clothing ridges and val- 

 leys almost without a break. Villages there are, but they 

 are not numerous, and most of them are down in the val- 

 leys, and therefore concealed by the tall woods which sur- 

 round them. In June the tender, light-colored leaves of 

 the Beech form a marked contrast with the darker foliage 

 of the Oak. The picture is varied by black patches of 

 Spruce, by the bluish green of the Scotch Pine, and here 

 and there the tops of tall Larch-trees stand out from the 

 rest readily distinguished by the brilliant light green of 

 their new leaves. Game is plentiful. If you start early 

 in the morning you are sure to come across numbers of 

 red deer; and wild pig, with their young, are often seen. 

 The forest is dense and unbroken, except where fields 

 surround the villages and narrow bands of meadows 

 skirt the stream in the valleys. 



FOREST-RIGHTS. 



The light sandy loam which overlies the red sandstone 

 owes its fertility mainly to the accumulation of vegetable- 

 mold. Unfortunately, however, a practice prevails in the 

 greater portion of this forest-district which seriously inter- 

 feres with this accumulation of vegetable-mold. This is 

 the removal of litter — the fallen leaves which cover the 

 ground. The soil around the villages is poor, and must be 

 manured heavily. The area of the fields is limited, and so 

 are the meadows. Root crops can only be grown to a 

 small extent, and the cattle must largely be fed with straw. 

 Hence forest-litter is indispensable, but by its removal the 

 ground gets denuded, the soil is impoverished and the 

 forest-growth suffers. Originally this practice was per- 

 mitted, because the population was scanty and its hurtful- 

 ness was not fully realized. Gradually population increased, 

 and, the practice being continued unchecked, a right was 

 acquired by prescription, and when in 18 14 the forest was 

 incorporated with the kingdom of Bavaria there was no 

 help for it but to acknowledge the right and to regulate its 

 exercise so as to limit the damage to the forest as much as 

 possible. 



The collection of litter has been regulated in this wise : 

 It must not be exercised in young woods which have not 

 yet attained half the age prescribed by the term of rota- 

 tion ; * further, an area where litter has been collected, 

 must have at least six years' rest before it is again opened 

 for that purpose, and lastly, the areas open for the collec- 

 tion of litter must be assigned annually by the responsible 

 forest-officers, and this is done in accordance with a well- 

 considered plan. Nevertheless, the quantity of leaves re- 

 moved annually is enormous. In spring and autumn long 

 strings of wagons filled with huge mountains of litter leave 

 the forest in every direction, and the result is that the soil 

 does not improve as much as it might, and in places it is 

 much impoverished. 



The state forests in this part of Bavaria are also burdened 

 with the right to dry wood, which may be exercised twice 

 a week by the neighboring villages. May, June and July 

 are excepted, and on the first open day in August, long be- 



*The term of rotation prescribed for Oak is 300, for Beech 120, for Scotch Pine 

 96, and for Spruce 72 years. 



fore daybreak, thousands of carts and wagons enter the 

 forest from all sides to fetch the dry wood, which is much 

 prized, not as fuel only, but also for agricultural imple- 

 ments, etc. The forest is alive with men, women and chil- 

 dren collecting what is on the ground and cutting dry 

 standing trees. On those days the foresters have their 

 hands full in guarding against injury to green trees. All 

 dry wood down to three and a half inches diameter belongs 

 to the right-holders, who may use the dry wood removed 

 by them, but may not sell it. 



Dry wood, such as is removed by right-holders, is the 

 outcome of overtopped and suppressed trees. Naturally, 

 these are most numerous in crowded woods, whereas they 

 are scarce in forests subjected from an early age to a reo-- 

 ular system of periodical thinnings. Hence the rule has 

 been laid down, in order not to curtail the supply of dry 

 wood to right-holders, that no thinnings shall be made 

 until the woods have attained half the age which they are 

 destined to attain. 



Another forest-right, but of less moment, is pannage, or 

 the right which the inhabitants of certain villages have to 

 feed swine upon the Beech and Oak mast within the forest. 

 The exercise of this right, however, is suspended on the 

 occurrence of a good Oak mast from October to January. 

 During that period the pannage is sold to the highest bid- 

 der, payment being generally made by the delivery of 

 acorns collected in the forest, to be used for the extensive 

 plantations of Oak made annually by the forest-officers. 



Bonn, Germany. J). BllVldis. 



Recent Publications. 



According to Seasoii. By Mrs. William Starr Dana. 

 Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 1894. 



This little volume is a reprint of letters contributed last 

 summer to the New York Tribune. As the sub-title indi- 

 cates, the letters are simply "talks about the flowers in the 

 order of their appearance in the woods and fields." The 

 aim of this book, like that of its predecessor, Hoiv to Know 

 the Wild Flowers, is to stimulate among the indifferent an 

 observant love of nature and to open for them a primrose 

 way to the rich treasures of the botanical world. The 

 record begins with the flowers of April, and closes with the 

 " surprises " of the autumn. The scientific method is care- 

 fully avoided, as well as the use of botanical names and 

 terms. The flowers are classified according to season, and 

 incidentally according to locality, with the avowed design 

 of enabling the reader " to start upon each tour of discovery 

 with a clear notion of what he is to find." But the direc- 

 tions given for finding the flowers are too vague to awaken 

 the curiosity of the indolent reader, and the information 

 concerning them too desultory to satisfy the zest of the 

 eager one. 



It is interesting to note how far apart lies the world 

 of the farmer from that of the amateur botanist. Mrs. 

 Dana writes of the Trifolium incarnatum as so rare a 

 flower in this country that, having found a group of them 

 in a Connecticut farm-yard, she learned their name only 

 by accident in an account of a country walk in England, 

 written by John Burroughs. Every intelligent farmer 

 knows that for several years past the agricultural papers 

 have been discussing the possibility of introducing this 

 variety of Clover into this country, and that it has" been 

 cultivated successfully in all of the middle Atlantic states. 

 But to the botanist it is still so great a stranger as to awaken 

 curiosity and interest. Though the book may fail in its 

 primary purpose, it will still find readers, for the essays, 

 though slight in substance, are gracefully written ; and to 

 the dwellers in the town whose childhood was spent in the 

 country, these simple little talks will serve to recall the 

 long-vanished " splendor in the grass and the glory in the 

 flower." For Mrs. Dana, in her descriptions of her favorite 

 woodland beauties, seems often to have caught the very 

 spirit of the flowers, their fragrance and their grace, and 

 there are now and then touches of true poetic feeling. 

 Who does not share her childish conviction " that one could 



