Plant and Animal Preserves in Europe 89 



nineteen to twenty-nine feet, has been created a reservation by the 

 State Forest Administration. Seventy-seven acres in the Hasbruch, 

 and 121 acres in the Neuenburger Urwald (in Oldenburg), have 

 been set aside and protected. These wood tracts are types of the 

 very few remaining primeval forests in Germany, and the reserva- 

 tion is to remain untouched. Dead trees will not be removed and 

 trunks are to lie where they fall. Some of the trees are very old 

 and attain considerable dimensions, an oak in Hasbruch having a 

 circumference of twenty-nine feet. In Wiirttemberg, the Wildsee 

 and its surroundings, in the Black Forest, have been acquired and 

 protected in an area of 185 acres. Here the hand of man is also 

 excluded as far as possible. 



Moors which formerly covered large areas of land in Germany, 

 notably in the North German plain, have been more and more 

 threatened and endangered by amelioration. As the moors rep- 

 resent the most ancient types of vegetation, are in fact relicts of the 

 ice age, the rare plants growing on them should be preserved as far 

 as possible. Cultivation of all available land cannot be stopped, but 

 the reservation of individual moors in various parts of the country 

 has been recommended and carried out to a considerable extent. 



Besides the Plagefenn, already mentioned, Zehlau, a moor of 5,829 

 acres in the district of Friedland, East Prussia, has been reserved 

 for the purpose of protection. Moose are still found here; but 

 most important is the fact that a primitive vegetation thrives here, 

 and that the indigenous moor mosses are constantly spreading, so 

 that moss growth can be admirably studied and observed, particu- 

 larly as in most other moors the withdrawal of the moisture by 

 processes of amelioration has caused them to cease spreading, to 

 become dormant. In the Danzig district, 326 acres of moor have 

 been reserved, and in several other sections of Prussia, in Bavaria, 

 and in Wiirttemberg, moors have been set aside and preserved. 



Organizations and Administration 



The leading organization in Germany is the State Bureau for 

 the Protection of Nature in Prussia. This bureau was founded in 

 1906 by the Ministry for Education, and was first established in 

 Danzig. In 191 o it was removed to Berlin. Professor Hugo Con- 

 wentz, who has been a pioneer in everything pertaining to nature 

 protection in Germany, has been at the head of the bureau since its 

 foundation. Besides its activities in discovery, exploration, and pre- 



