REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 69 



tracts of timber which they still hold and operate. That their early 

 operations consisted in taking only the best is testified by Jager- 

 schmidt who, in 1828, writes that the tracts over which they had 

 logged contained still many fine trees over 1 foot in diameter and 

 100 feet tall. Only the very best trees were taken out in the same 

 way that the early lumbering operations in this country were con- 

 ducted. 



The lowest and easiest slopes were logged first and hence today 

 we find for the most part the best and oldest stands (second growth) 

 closest to the streams and in the most accessible places, while at the 

 higher altitudes and most inaccessible places where the good roads 

 have only penetrated within the past 50 years we find the youngest 

 stands, for it was here that the primeval growth was cut last. 



Stumpage prices in the Black Forest have risen very rapidly, 

 even recently. In the past 5 years from $13 to $17, and from $20 

 to $26 for the better stuff. Only since there has come to be a 

 market for any and all products of the forest have working plans 

 come to be a feature of Black Forest operations. Formerly the 

 working plans were made for periods of 100 years, but with the 

 increasing realization that conditions of market and transportation 

 and demand change rapidly, these working plan periods have been 

 made shorter and shorter, until plans for 10 year periods are con- 

 sidered quite sufficient in most places. 



A working plan of a German forest is an interesting document 

 and consists of : 



a Inventory of values at hand (statement of facts) ; and includes 

 timber, pasture, hunting rights, value of land, minerals, water 

 power, mill property, roads, logs cut and on hand, nursery 

 sites, agricultural land, etc. 



b Boundaries, organization, means of logging, etc. 



c Market and relative demand for the various products, local or 

 foreign. 



d Working plan (that is, changes of fact to be made or provided 

 for). Herein is outlined the work to be carried out on the 

 forest in the future. 



What a working plan provides is of course largely governed by 

 the owner's opinion. An optimistic owner will cut little ; hence 

 changes will be toward increasing the investment. A pessimistic 

 owner will want heavy cuts, discarding all but what commands the 

 highest price (as pulp wood in Saxony). In Saxony they did not 

 rely on an increase in stumpage ; in the Black Forest they did and 



