June 6, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



229 



stocked with Beech of the same size would only be worth 

 $720. This result, however, would be attained in 180 years, 

 whereas the Oak wood would be 300 years old. 



These figures will make it clear that of the trees indige- 

 nous in the Spessart, the Beech far preponderates, its growth 

 is more vigorous and faster than that of the Oak. Hence, 

 in working the forest, the tendency will always be for the 

 Beech to gain the upper hand and for the Oak to disappear. 

 This will explain sufficiently why it is necessary to make 

 special efforts to frame the plan of working the forest, so 

 as gradually to increase the proportion of Oak in it. 



PRESENT GROWING STOCK OF OLD OAK-TREES. 



From time immemorial the Spessart has been one of 

 the principal sources of large Oak timber in western 

 Germany. The rich wine-producing districts in the val- 

 leys of the Rhine and the Main have chiefly depended 

 upon these forests for their wine-casks. And for boat- 

 building and house-building the Spessart has always fur- 

 nished large quantities of Oak. In spite of these constant 

 and heavy demands, large numbers of old Oak-trees, from 

 240 to 500 years of age, still remain standing. These old 

 trees are mostly found scattered in the old Beech-woods, 

 but there are some areas where the Oak forms a large pro- 

 portion of the growing stock. The most remarkable of 

 these is situated in the forest-range of Rohrbrunn, on the 

 north-west slope of the Geiersberg, which, as already men- 

 tioned, is the highest point of this mountain-range. Here 

 there are upward of 1,000 acres in one block, stocked with 

 Oak 240 to 245 years old, at the rate of seventy trees per 

 acre, the trees eighteen to twenty inches in diameter and 

 ninety-five feet high. Among the Oak, here and there, are 

 a- few Beech- trees, and the ground is everywhere cov- 

 ered with an underwood of Beech, partly natural, partly 

 planted. These Oaks date from the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century ; they sprung up soon after the thirty-years' 

 war (16 1 8-1648), and some of the mother trees are still left, 

 giants 500 years old, with a diameter of forty inches. This 

 is not rapid growth, but the elevation is high, 1,300 to 1,700 

 feet, and the soil on this slope is not very deep and not 

 very rich. 



That this is slow growth will be understood from the fol- 

 lowing figures : A survey made in August, 1891, of a 

 sample area, six-tenths of an acre, selected as a good 

 average, gave ninety-one trees per acre, mean height 

 ninety-five feet, tallest tree 105 feet, and 8,087 cubic feet, 

 equal to 97,000 superficial feet of timber — oak, pure, it 

 will be remembered, with an underwood of Beech, which, 

 of course, was not included in the survey, at an elevation 

 of 1,500 feet. In Normandy, at a low elevation, on rich 

 soil, in a mild and uniformly moist climate, there is a wood of 

 sixty-eight acres, in the forest-range of Lyons-Ia-Foret, con- 

 sisting of Beech, sixty-five per cent. ; Oak and Hornbeam, 

 thirty per cent., and other species, five per cent; sixty- 

 eight trees per acre ; mean age, 160 years, with some old 

 standards up to 240 years old ; mean height, 147 feet ; tall- 

 est tree, 164 feet; volume of timber, 14,300 cubic feet, 

 equal to 168,000 feet, board measure. 



Thus, 160 years in Normandy have produced much taller 

 trees, and nearly twice the volume of timber per acre, than 

 240 years in the Spessart. The explanation is that Beech 

 grows faster than Oak, as previously explained, and that 

 soil and climate are much more favorable. These are 

 forests in Europe in about fifty degrees of north latitude. 

 They are beaten out of sight by the exceedingly mild and 

 moist climate on the western slope of the Coast-range, in 

 California, at about thirty-eight degrees of north latitude. 

 Here it is reported that some Redwood-forests yield 250,000 

 or even 500,000 feet, board measure, per acre, and this 

 statement does not seem incredible, for, in his book on the 

 forests of North America, Dr. Heinrich Mayr gives an ac- 

 count of a sample area examined by him, with fifty-six trees 

 per acre, mean height 275 feet, containing 190,070 cubic 

 feet, or 2,280,840 feet, board measure. However, the age 

 of this wood was 700 years. It would be a delightful task 



to manage forests with such wonderful powers of timber 

 production. One of the first points to make for would be 

 to determine the earliest age at which the Redwood pro- 

 duces marketable timber of really good quality. But even 

 if a rotation of, say, 200 years were found to be necessary, 

 the rent per acre of such forests, managed on conservancy 

 principles, would be very high. 



The history of this fine and valuable German forest may 

 be understood if we examine the forest on the eastern slope 

 of the Geierskopf near the top, which consists entirely of 

 an open wood of old Oak-trees, over 400 years of age, with 

 a few Beech. It is generally assumed, and this assumption is 

 borne out by such old records as exist, that 400 to 500 

 years ago the higher portions of the Spessart were stocked 

 with pure, or nearly pure, Oak-woods. Now, it is one of 

 the peculiar features of pure Oak-woods, a peculiarity 

 which that tree shares with the Scotch Pine, the Larch and 

 other trees, which, while young, demand much light and 

 are impatient of shade ; that as the wood grows older it 

 gradually gets thin and open, and the canopy of its foliage 

 no longer completely shades the ground. An Oak-wood 

 raised by broadcast sowing'or the result of self-sown seed- 

 lings will at the age of twenty years, if fully stocked, have 

 about 1,200 stems per acre; when 100 years old, 25010300 

 only will be left, and of them at the age of 250 years, sev- 

 enty only will be left on the ground. The trees which 

 disappear during the long life of an Oak-wood are over- 

 topped and gradually die out. In the higher portions of 

 the Spessart it is probable that, besides the natural tendency 

 of pure Oak-woods to get thin and open when old, other 

 factors were at work in the same direction. These woods 

 were doubtless used in summer as the high level grazing- 

 grounds by the rich villages which studded the. fertile open 

 country. The grass under the partial shelter of scattered 

 Oak-trees is excellent, and the herdsmen doubtless meant, 

 by fire or otherwise, to get rid of a portion of the trees. 

 The result has been that these pasture-grounds on the 

 higher ranges of the Spessart were like a gigantic park, 

 studded with old Oak-trees, forming open woods, the 

 ground under the trees being clothed with a dense matting 

 of grass. During the thirty-years' war, however, these vil- 

 lages in the open country of Franconia were repeatedly 

 devastated, and the cattle killed or driven away; the young 

 Oak, therefore, which until then had been kept down by 

 the cattle, took advantage of the opportunity, and on the 

 occurrence of the first heavy Oak-mast dense thickets of 

 Oak sprang up and covered the ground. Oak-masts do 

 not occur frequently in the Spessart. During the fifty 

 years from 1820 to 1870 there have only been nine heavy 

 seed years. In spring, when the tree is in blossom, night 

 frosts frequently prevent the fertilization of the female 

 flowers or kill the young fruit. Caterpillars, also, not 

 rarely destroy both young leaves and flower-buds. A good 

 Oak-mast is naturally an event of the greatest importance 

 in the Spessart, and it generally occurs once in five or six 

 years. The acorns, being heavy, do not fall far from the 

 tree, but in a good seed year the ground near the mother- 

 trees is covered with acorns, and the nearly pure Oak- 

 woods, 240 to 245 years old, most likely owe their origin 

 to a heavy Oak-mast which occurred soon after the close of 

 the thirty-years' war, when there were no cattle left to eat 

 and destroy the young seedlings. 



In the forest-range of Rothenbuch, which adjoins that 

 of Rohrbrunn on the north, may be mentioned two smaller 

 areas stocked with magnificent old woods of mixed Oak 

 and Beech, one being the compartments Zuber and Denk- 

 stein, of no acres, where some 1,100 huge Oaks, 375 years 

 old, are mixed with a large number of younger Beeches 

 145 years old. The Oaks are 115 feet high, with tall, 

 clean boles, the result of having grown up closely pressed 

 by the Beech. They stand on gentle slopes with south- 

 erly aspect on the north side of the Hafenlohr valley. 

 Higher up on the same side of that valley is the famous 

 wood known under the name of Metzgers Graben, about 

 250 acres, with seven Oaks per acre, from 400 to 5C0 years 



