54 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



years ago, to oak acorns, very densely; and it appears that this 

 method is particularly successful just here, and would seem to be 

 preferable and cheaper than waiting for the uncertain and slow 

 shelterwood method. 



On other compartments of the Mitteldick range the growth of 

 oak has been induced under pine standards, about 120 years old. 

 The pines are fine, but the oak is generally crooked in spite of its 

 relative density. It is planned gradually to remove the pines, which 

 number about 20 to the acre, and see if the oak improves in quality. 



The German forester as a rule loves beech, which is in youth a 

 shade-loving species, and one finds a great variety of methods by 

 which the beech is utilized in German sylviculture. The German 

 forester calls the beech the " mother of the soil," possibly because 

 it forms an alkaline litter instead of an acid litter as results from 

 the fall of the oak foliage. At Mitteldick is to be seen several 

 methods of handling beech growth, two of which are rather note- 

 worthy. In certain compartments an abundance of beech seeds 

 have been sown in drills or furrows beneath rather dense stands of 

 Scotch pine about 60 years old. The result is rather startling to the 

 American accustomed only to seeing our native forests of pine or 

 spruce with only a scanty undergrowth. A dense thicket of beech 

 springs up, almost impenetrable in places, and wherever gaps occur 

 in the forest crown overhead or where cuttings are made the beech 

 rapidly assumes the dominant position, but under the thicker pines it 

 remains in suppression for many years, in this respect not unlike the 

 spruce. A similar management of beech is to be seen in the 

 Darmstadt city forests (plate 3) and in other ranges of the Rhine 

 valley. 



Another compartment of mixed oak, beech, hornbeam, and other 

 hardwoods had been likewise underplanted with beech seeds in 

 furrows, and after an interval of about three years, at which time 

 I saw the compartment under a light coat of snow (plate 4), it 

 looked not unlike a vast collection of nursery beds containing tiny 

 beeches all about of a size. Such operations must naturally follow 

 good seed years. 



4 THE FRANKFURT TOWN FORESTS 



The Frankfurt town forests adjoin the Ysenburg and Mitteldick 

 ranges on the north and are therefore most easily reached from 

 Ysenburg station. The line separating these ranges is also the 

 boundary here between Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt, so that the 

 effects of radically different forest administrations can be seen on 



