August i, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



309 



beauties of his extensive grounds, to the general public, and 

 large numbers of visitors avail themselves of this privilege. 

 Wellesley, Mass. A - M. S - Rossiter. 



The Forest. 



Mixed Oak and Beech Forests of the Spessart : 

 Management by the Bavarian Government. — II. 



LENGTH OF ROTATION FIXED FOR OAK AND BEECH. 



THE woods here described are all what is called "high 

 forest," that is, the trees are raised from seed, either 

 self-sown or planted, naturally or artificially. In order to ex- 

 plain a term which has been used already, "the period 

 of rotation," it will be convenient to say a word regarding 

 coppice woods, consisting mainly of stool-shoots or root- 

 suckers, which are periodically cut over. The object of 

 coppice woods is the production of hop-poles, vine-props, 

 withies for basket-work, fire-wood, bark used for tanning 

 and the like. For this purpose the coppice is cut over at a 

 certain age, one or two years old in the case of Osier beds, 

 fourteen to twenty years in the case of Oak coppice, where 

 tanning bark is the principal produce, and so on. An area 

 of Oak coppice, managed on a rotation of, say, fifteen years, 

 is divided into fifteen subdivisions or compartments ; com- 

 partment 1 being cut this year, compartment 2 the next, 

 and so on. After the fifteenth year, when compartment 15 

 has been cut, the coppice shoots on compartment 1 have 

 attained the age of fifteen years, and when this has been 

 cut over the second time it may be said that the second 

 rotation has commenced. High forests are also divided 

 into compartments, but the number of these compartments 

 has no relation to the length of rotation. Cuttings of the 

 mixture timber in one compartment are generally con- 

 tinued during a number of years, and in most cases cut- 

 tings go on in several compartments at the same time. 

 Oak stools one hundred years of age and older may still, on 

 being cut over, bring forth vigorous coppice shoots, and if 

 the operation is carefully performed Oak stools may last 

 during six or more rotations. In the case of high forest it 

 is different ; here the term of rotation means the time 

 which elapses from the seedling until the mature crop is 

 finally cut down. 



Generally it may be said that in the Spessart it is most 

 advantageous to let the Oak attain an age of 300 years, and 

 hence 300 years has been fixed as the period of rotation for 

 this species. It does not, however, follow that no Oak-trees 

 will be cut before or after they have attained that age. As 

 already explained, many of the trees now standing in the 

 Spessart are much older ; in fact, the greater portion of the 

 yield expected during the first period will consist of much 

 older trees. Some of them show signs of deterioration, as 

 indicated by their getting dry branches or becoming stag- 

 headed. Such trees are always removed first, sound and 

 vigorous trees being left as long as possible, or until the 

 compartment in which they stand is taken in hand for 

 regeneration. 



It is quite different with the Beech, of which, as pre- 

 viously explained, the greater part can only be sold as fuel, 

 for charcoal burning, or for the manufacture of wood alco- 

 hol and other products of the dry distillation of the wood. 

 No object would be gained in allowing the Beech to attain 

 a great age. Hence, for Beech, the term of rotation has 

 been fixed at 5 x 24=120 years. A mature wood in its nor- 

 mal condition would, therefore, in the Spessart, consist of 

 Oaks 300 years old, mixed with Beech 120 years of age. 

 In other words, when the Beech in any compartment is 

 cut, a proportion of the Oak-trees would be held over until 

 the second cutting of the Beech took place. It does not, 

 however, follow that a proportion of well-grown Beech- 

 trees might not be held over so as to attain a greater age 

 than 120 years, for there is a demand for large Beech-tim- 

 ber, though that demand is at present limited. 



In the numerous valleys which begin in the Spessart 

 range, and which run in all directions toward the Main 

 River, large saw-mills have been established, where timber 



of these forests is cut up. These establishments do not, how- 

 ever, alone depend upon the Spessart timber. They import 

 from Slavonia and other parts of Germany large quantities of 

 Oak, Ash and Elm. The Spessart Oak has given the start, 

 but the business has developed and the produce of the Spes- 

 sart is no longer sufficient to meet the increasing demand. 

 Cheap railway freights and the low price of timber in these 

 remote forest districts have brought about this development 

 of the lumber industry in the vicinity of the Spessart. The 

 working-plan, sketched above, provides for a fairly even 

 supply of large Oak-timber from the Spessart during the next 

 ninety years. This certainty of a sustained supply during 

 so long a period is a great advantage for the establish- 

 ments alluded to, as well as for the lumber trade generally 

 in this portion of Germany. During the interruption in the 

 supply of the Spessart Oak, which will take place at the 

 close of this period, use will be made of the produce of 

 forests in other parts of Germany, which are stocked with 

 Oak-trees of the requisite age. 



RECLAMATION OF THE DEVASTATED FOREST-AREAS. 



The second point to which the attention of the Bavarian 

 Government was specially directed, was the reclamation 

 of the devastated forest-areas which had become impov- 

 erished by reckless clearances and by the uncontrolled 

 wholesale removal of litter. The northern portion, situated 

 north of the great railway line Aschaffenburg-Lohr-Wurzburg, 

 had suffered most, because here the villages are larger and 

 more numerous. Naturally, places with shallow soil, such 

 as the tops of ridges and localities with the rock close to 

 the surface, have become impoverished to a greater extent 

 by the removal of litter than places with deep soil. On 

 these devastated and partially denuded areas it was hope- 

 less to attempt to raise Oak and Beech ; conifers were the 

 only trees from which success could reasonably be ex- 

 pected. The first experiments were made with Scotch Pine, 

 later on Spruce also was resorted to, particularly on low 

 ground. In 1820 1.7 per cent of the total area was stocked 

 with conifers; in 1876 the area had been increased to 35 

 per cent., and it is still larger at present. Most of these 

 coniferous woods are on the outskirts and in the northern 

 half of the Spessart, and this explains that the traveler who 

 passes through this portion of the Aschaffenburg-Lohr rail- 

 way line sees more Scotch Pine and Spruce woods from 

 the train than Oak and Beech. These kinds have a much 

 more rapid rate of growth than Oak and Beech, hence 

 the term of rotation for Scotch Pine has been fixed at 4 x 24 

 =96, and for Spruce at 3 x 24=72 years. Although the 

 timber of these trees commands much lower prices than 

 Oak, these devastated and impoverished areas, nearly all 

 of which have now been planted up in this manner, will 

 shortly begin to yield a good return. 



It is noteworthy that in this large forest district, besides 

 the Juniper (Juniperus communic), no coniferous tree is 

 indigenous. Higher up the Main River, above the town 

 of Kitzingen, indigenous forests of the Scotch Pine occupy 

 large portions of the valley, and east of the river, between 

 Kitzingen and Bamberg, the hilly tract known as the 

 Steiger Wald, is stocked with a mixed forest of Beech, 

 Scotch Pine and Oak. Nor are the Spruce, the Larch and 

 the Silver Fir indigenous in the Spessart. Groups of Larch 

 and Spruce were planted here and there during the last half 

 of the eighteenth century, and fine specimens of these 

 species, 120 years old and upward, are found here and 

 there. The good condition of these old trees has induced 

 the Bavarian forest authorities not to limit the planting of 

 these trees to devastated and impoverished land, but to 

 contemplate the creation of mixed woods of Beech and 

 these conifers. This will be more fully explained fur- 

 ther on. . . T _ ,. 



Bonn, Germany. DlClriCll bralldlS. 



Notes. 



A tract of Cypress swamp-land containing 30,000 acres, and 

 lying adjacent to Lake Maurapas, in Louisiana, and reported to 

 contain three hundred million feet of choice timber, has been 



