REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 51 



underneath the old stand is well established a heavy, final cut is 

 made, leaving only a few trees to the acre to run through the next 

 rotation as " veterans." The regeneration at this time is particularly 

 thick, estimated to consist of fully 30,000 young trees to the acre 

 and forming almost impenetrable thickets. In the resulting struggle 

 among these 30,000 seedlings for dominance, clean and slender boles 

 result. In taking out the final cut, naturally considerable damage 

 is done to the young stand, but it is surprising how quickly these 

 gaps close up even where no planting is done to " doctor " them up. 

 The German forester dislikes to see a vacant patch of ground in the 

 woods and usually plants something there immediately, although in 

 many cases it is unnecessary and the results of his planting may be 

 choked to death by the rapidity of the growth of the surrounding 

 forest. 



Conditions sometimes get the best of even the German forester, 

 for in some compartments either too much delay has been exercised 

 in making the final cut or the regeneration came faster than was 

 expected, for it is so high and dense that irreparable damage will 

 result when the final cut is made. Young trees can stand much 

 abuse, but not when they are 15 feet tall. The last cut before the 

 final one leaves about 75 fine standards to the acre, so that the 

 regeneration takes place by no means under conditions that could 

 be called " open." 



All compartments, however, of the Ysenburg range are not so 

 fine as the ones described above and which happen to be the ones 

 nearest to the station. Some compartments are very poor and the 

 pines are porcupinelike and scattered, having suffered from un- 

 usually sterile soil, mice, grubs, and other enemies. The white pine, 

 where used under these conditions, seems to be making a better 

 showing than the Scotch pine, but the expense of replacing the 

 Scotch pine by white pine is high and out of keeping with any results 

 that will be obtained for a long time to come. 



A particular compartment at Ysenburg has been given over for 

 many years to the experiment upon Borgrave's method of thinning. 

 Thinnings, properly speaking, are for the purpose of reducing the 

 investment or for the improvement of the remaining stand, and if 

 a regeneration results it is merely incidental. Seed cuttings and 

 preparatory cuttings (often miscalled thinnings in the United States) 

 are for the purpose of regeneration, absolutely and only, and are 

 not properly to be called thinnings, but cuttings. 



Borgrave would take out one- fourth of the volume in one-seventh 



