REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 73 



at $11.50 a cubic meter with bark. This material is in great demand 

 for the manufacture of ammunition boxes and the recent wars and 

 the preparations for war seem to have caused a great increase in 

 the price for the lower grades of Scotch pine. 



At the base of the mountain slope just above the city is an old 

 chestnut orchard, planted privately about 125 years ago for the pro- 

 duction of chestnuts. Cheap transportation from the south has 

 ruined the local chestnut market and this orchard, on a slope too 

 steep for agricultural purposes, was purchased by the city about 

 60 years ago. The trees were originally in rows about 20 feet apart. 

 The chestnut logs obtained from this stand are cut into large billets 

 and exported to Holland where they bring about $20 a thousand 

 board feet and from them is manufactured tight cooperage for the 

 export of brandies. Following the removal of the largest trees there 

 occurred a wonderfully fine regeneration of chestnut, which seemed 

 to the local authorities an unheard of thing. They are now cutting 

 the chestnuts downward from the top of the stand as fast as the 

 regeneration progresses. Mixed with the chestnut regeneration is 

 some maple. 



Black locust, of which there is quite an abundance scattered along 

 the lower slopes, brings a price of $10 a cubic meter for spokes 

 and hubs. 



On the higher slopes and plateau to the north of the city the 

 forest was originally all hardwoods, but with centuries of misuse 

 they became unprofitable and were for the most part transformed 

 into coppice hardwoods, while the soil became dried and sterile. 

 With the beginning of the last half century these slopes were planted 

 mostly by seed planting to Scotch pine below and spruce or fir 

 above with considerable larch intermixed. This was done because 

 it was believed that the more modest conifers would have a chance 

 to succeed and to become profitable here where the hardwoods 

 had failed. That they have paid is doubtless true, but the result 

 has been the formation of a vast even-aged stand of conifers, often 

 subject to severe snowbreak, windfall, and the ever present danger 

 of a vast forest fire. The general tendency, now that the conifers 

 are well established, is to break up these even-aged stands into small 

 compartments of varying age and species and wherever the soil and 

 exposure warrants it, the introduction again of hardwoods. 



On one of the upper slopes is to be seen the present day result 

 of the planting of the so-called " Jager's mixture." Fifty years ago 

 or more there was planted here a mixture of seeds of Scotch pine, 

 spruce and larch. Today it looks like a pure Scotch pine stand from 



