58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



includes the northern part of the Odenwald, the government is 

 buying woodlands at a minimum price of $360 an acre, while in the 

 adjoining grand duchy of Baden, where the state is not so eager 

 to acquire private holdings, there is paid not over $120 an acre for 

 woodlands, under otherwise equal conditions. 



The growth of white pine is particularly good everywhere in the 

 Odenwald, and on the better classes of soil and on northern slopes 

 some very successful results have been obtained with hickory, black 

 walnut, red oak and other foreign hardwoods. Beautiful pole- 

 woods of silver fir and spruce are seen everywhere and Scotch pine 

 is not uncommon. On good soils, however, it is usually the policy 

 to make every effort to retain and build up the mixed hardwood 

 stands of oak, ash, maple, basswood and cherry. 



One of the interesting ranges of the Odenwald forests is that of 

 Affoltenbach, under the administration of Forstmeister Strack, con- 

 sisting of about 8000 acres, one-half being state forests, and the 

 other half communal forests, owned by ten different towns and 

 hamlets. That of Affoltenbach contains about 1000 acres, and the 

 sale of material is conducted by the town council or by the Biirger- 

 meister. 



By 1870 the price of oak tan bark had reached such a high figure 

 that many towns were tempted to convert their forests into coppice, 

 which yielded large returns in short rotations. By 1885 the price of 

 oak tan bark had declined to an unprofitable figure and these towns 

 were confronted with the problem of reconverting their practically 

 valueless coppice into " seed " or " high forests." The poverty of 

 the soil and the aggressive growth of heather (Calluna vul- 

 garis) in the coppice forests have made this a very difficult and 

 slow as well as expensive process. Here can be seen as nowhere 

 else the relative ability of different tree species to conquer the 

 heather, for they have tried almost every conceivable combination to 

 overcome its aggressive growth. 



Prior to the oak coppice forests, heather was not a serious menace 

 in the forests of this range, and the factors which have brought 

 about its domination of the soil, while they could not have been 

 anticipated at that time, are now well enough understood. The best 

 explanation of this ecological condition which we have in English 

 is F. V. Coville's investigations on upland heather soil. He found 

 that oak leaves do not only decay very slightly but that they are 

 decidedly acid in reaction even when two or three years old. In 

 these forests of the Affoltenbach range the introduction of the 

 coppice system permitted much sunlight to reach the litter upon the 



