July 25, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



299 



three matters of vital importance which demanded imme- 

 diate attention. 



These were (1) the regulation of cuttings as regards Oak- 

 timber ; 



(2) The measures necessary to reclaim the devastated 

 forest-area ; and 



(3) The regeneration of the Oak. 



THE GROWING STOCK OF OLD OAK-TIMBER SPREAD OVER A 

 LONG PERIOD. 



From the outset it was clear that the existing stock of old 

 Oak-timber could not be made to last until the young Oak- 

 woods attained maturity. It will be remembered that 

 there was an almost complete want of middle-aged Oak- 

 trees. The interruption in the future supply of Oak-timber, 

 which is the necessary consequence of this state of things, 

 might be partially bridged over by spreading the consump- 

 tion of the growing stock of old Oak-timber over a long 

 series of years, allowing the last old trees to attain a very 

 great age. Obviously, however, there is a limit to such a 

 proceeding ; for, though the Oak-tree attains a very great 

 age, still, among very old trees, there will always be a 

 proportion whose timber near the centre of the stem 

 is unsound ; moreover, the proportion of unsound and hol- 

 low stems increases rapidly with advancing age. During 

 the eighty years which have elapsed since 1814, the cut- 

 tings of old Oak-trees have been carried on in the most 

 economical and careful manner, so that there is still a 

 large growing stock to draw upon during a long series of 

 years. In order to effect this an elaborate working-plan 

 was drawn up more than sixty years ago, which, however, 

 was made subject to periodical revisions. The last revi- 

 sion was made in 1888, and a statement of some of its 

 provisions may possibly interest your readers. 



The Rohrbrunn Range comprises a wooded area of 

 13,063 acres, and in this area 102,000 large Oak-trees were 

 left standing in 1888. The yield of Oak-timber in cubic 

 feet for five consecutive periods is estimated as follows : 



Periods 



Timber yield, 



8 to 1911 

 183,000 



1912 to 1935 

 2,349,000 



1936 to 1959 

 3,780,000 



i960 to 1983 I 1984 to 2007 

 4,131,000 I 189,000 



The working-plan is prepared for five periods of twenty- 

 four years each, and it will be understood that only 

 the total quantity to be cut during each period is fixed, 

 the detailed arrangements regarding the quantity to be 

 cut each year being left to be settled when the time 

 comes, in accordance with circumstances then existing. 

 All old Oak-trees are registered, and from the figures 

 of the statement it will be seen that there were in 1888 

 102,000 in the Rohrbrunn Range — namely, 72,000 in the 

 1,000-acre block on the slopes of the Geiersberg, then 

 about 240 years old, and 30,000 older trees in the rest 

 of the range, mostly scattered among Beech-woods. The 

 older trees will be cut during the first two periods, whereas 

 the Oak of the 1,000-acre block will furnish the main por- 

 tion of the yield expected between 1936 and 1983— that is, 

 during the third and fourth period. The mean ageof these 

 trees will at the time of their fall be 310 years. If cut at 

 the present time the timber would probably not fetch more 

 than thirty marks per cubic metre (35 cubic feet or 420 su- 

 perficial feet), whereas the timber of trees 300 to 400 years 

 old is worth from two to three times that amount. Thus 

 it is true economy not to contemplate cutting the last of 

 the- Oak-timber standing on the 1,000-acre block in the 

 Rohrbrunn Range until nearly 100 years hence. 



To some of your readers the notion of providing in a 

 forest working-plan what has to be done 120 years hence, 

 of settling in 1888 what Oak-timber is to be cut between 

 1984 and 2007, may appear little short of childish. Doubt- 

 less, changes may take place before that time ; storms may 

 uproot thousands of the trees now standing long before the 

 period assigned for their cutting, and other unexpected 

 events may happen which may upset all previous calcula- 

 tions. So much, however, may be regarded as certain, 

 that an article as valuable as Oak-timber will always com- 

 mand a comparatively high price, hence it is desirable to 



take measures to secure, as far as possible, an uninter- 

 rupted supply of this article. And it is evident that, in 

 order to secure this result, some sort of forecast must be 

 made for a long series of years, even at the risk that some 

 of its provisions must be modified when this plan is pe- 

 riodically revised. As a matter of fact, ever since 1814 the 

 cuttings and other operations in the Spessart have been 

 regulated by working-plans of this kind, and the present 

 satisfactory condition of the forests has been brought 

 about by arranging the annual cuttings in accordance with 

 the provisions of such working-plans. Generally it may 

 be said, that the heaviest annual yield will be during the 

 first period, because many very old trees, which would 

 otherwise deteriorate, must be cut, and that, although until 

 the close of the fourth period (to 1983) it will be possible 

 to maintain a fairly even supply of Oak-timber, there will 

 be a break then, which will last until the woods now 100 

 years old have attained those dimensions which will justify 

 their utilization. 



Recent Publications. 



The Garden that I Love. By Alfred Austin. Macmillan 

 & Co. : London and New York, 1894. 



In these days, when so much complaint is heard of the 

 artificiality and excitement of life in cities, any book which 

 sets forth in attractive fashion the genuine happiness to be 

 found in the simple employments of country life needs no 

 excuse for being ; and whatever may be the defects of Mr. 

 Austin's little volume, there can be no question that it 

 reflects on every page that true content which can be found 

 by degenerate man only when, escaping from the friction 

 of the world, he endeavors to create for himself some 

 "suburban resemblance" to that pure paradise forfeited 

 ages ago by Adam's fall. Mr. Austin is, perhaps, a little 

 too conscious of his reputation as a poet and literary man 

 to be always spontaneous, but his devotion to rural pur- 

 suits is not affected, and his love of his garden and of 

 nature herself is profound and sincere. He notes her 

 changing.beauty with an artist's eye and describes it with 

 something of a poet's grace. Nor is he altogether wanting 

 in appreciation of that higher beauty of nature which ap- 

 peals rather to the soul than to the senses or the *intellect. 



It is impossible to read these clearly printed and broa^- 

 margined pages without comparing the work with Mrs. 

 Robbins' simple story, The Rescue of an Old Place, first 

 told in the columns of this journal. The two books are 

 exactly alike in purpose, but with the difference that would 

 be expected between one which treats of the charms of 

 rural life in an old and another which treats of the same life 

 in a new country. Each records a series of experiments 

 by which beauty and harmony were wrought out of some- 

 thing like ruin and desolation, but the scene of Mr. Austin's 

 ' experiment is a neglected estate in the heart of cultivated 

 England, rich with all the passion of the past; while Mrs. 

 Robbins finds her happiness in rescuing from decay an 

 abandoned farm in prosaic and rugged Massachusetts. 

 Both tell of compromises between history and hope 

 and explain how, by loving labor, "the old may be made 

 to add charm and dignity to the new, while the 

 new lends purpose and meaning to the old," and it 

 may be that because this is the problem, not only of 

 landscape-art, but of life itself, we find in both books, 

 scattered amid more or less practical and trustworthy 

 directions as to sowing and planting and gathering, so 

 many sage criticisms of life and art- — a sort of mental 

 harvest which seems to be garnered by every one who, 

 while treating nature and her work with due reverence, 

 assumes control over ever so small a portion of the earth's 

 surface and attempts to subdue it to use and ordered beauty. 

 Both books have the accent of culture, but in Mrs. Robbins' 

 book the note is struck with the firm touch of one to whom 

 life is more than books, the body more than raiment, while 

 in The Garden that I Love we hear the somewhat languid 

 tone which results when culture is sought as an aim in 



