72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The oak trees dating back to the early coppicing system have a 

 very coarse grain and seem to heal the scars of old branches 

 particularly well. The growth of the oak is very uniform and fine. 

 For the oak timber, a very high price is realized, especially for logs 

 showing a pinkish color at the ends, and further for straight logs 

 of small taper. The highest grade of veneer oak brings from $300 

 to $400 a cubic meter, while the second class of oak brings from 

 $90 to $180 a cubic meter. This is equivalent to an average price 

 of $30 a thousand feet for timber of all grades. The average price 

 received for cord wood of all grades is $9. 



The estimate of a fairly typical strip through a stand of beech 

 and oak showed 102 beeches an acre with an average diameter of 

 10 inches (beech being 100 years old), and 2508 board feet of 

 lumber. The oaks on the same strip numbered 23, with an average 

 diameter of 26 inches, and a total of 13,189 board feet. The average 

 annual increment is about 160 board feet an acre. 



The roads throughout the Gramschatz range are rather poor, 

 owing to the deep soil and the poor grade of stone available for 

 road building within the forest. About $4000 is being spent annually 

 for the construction of permanent roads. 



11 HEIDELBERG CITY FOREST 



The city of Heidelberg owns about 7000 acres of forest land. 

 Originally the mountain sides and plateaus about Heidelberg were 

 covered with decrepit hardwood forests, but now most of the forests 

 situated more than 800 feet above the city are softwoods. The 

 spruce stands, 50 to 65 years old, are excellent but have suffered con- 

 siderably from drought in 1910, and also from snow and ice. A 

 thinning was made in the 50 year old spruce in 1903 which netted 

 $30 an acre. Then came severe damage resulting from snow and 

 ice which made it necessary to remove the damaged trees, netting 

 another $30 an acre, and the thinnings made necessary by the more 

 recent drought yielded a further $10 an acre. In spite of this the 

 spruce forests look dense enough and one would scarcely believe 

 that so much material had been removed. The soil itself is valued 

 at $50 an acre. The growing of spruce on these high slopes of the 

 Heidelberg forest appears to be particularly remunerative to the 

 city, as peeled pulp wood brings in the woods a price of $8.75 to 

 $9.50 a cord. 



The plateau portions of the forests contain considerable Scotch 

 pine of inferior quality which, however, is sold for box material 



