50 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



political importance, until they were forced, in order to satisfy their 

 creditors, to sell out to the government in 1890 at a price of $300 an 

 acre. Their forest lands embraced about 4000 acres within a solid 

 boundary and the event was notable in being one of the few large 

 sales of timber land in Germany. A few years later the state govern- 

 ment sold a slice of this land containing 125 acres suitable for villa 

 sites at a price of $3000 an acre, the stumpage not included. This 

 strip is a fine stand of Scotch pine, bordering the macadam road 

 leading west from the station of Ysenburg. It was seed planted on 

 very poor sandy soil, some 70 years ago. 



Some of the former princes of Ysenburg apparently realized the 

 importance of careful forest management. The records of this 

 particular forest show that in 1761 it consisted of decrepit beech 

 and oak woods, the remnant of the primeval Rhine valley forest 

 which was entirely oak and beech with no pine, the pine being intro- 

 duced to reforest the drifting sand which followed the deforestation 

 of the Rhine valley in many places a century and a half ago. These 

 stands of Ysenburg in 1761 had been ruined by continuous cutting 

 and pasturage. In 1762 regulations were promulgated which pro- 

 vided that: 



The best oak and beech be conserved ; 

 Restocking areas must be fenced against grazing; 

 Seed planting of conifers be made in blank places ; 

 Cutting be done only in winter ; 



Use of wooden fences forbidden because of the threatened fuel famine 

 (in 1762 observe !) ; 

 The villagers ordered to plant willow and alder along their streams ; 

 Only invalids allowed to keep goats by grace of a medical certificate. 



At that time one-third of the land was without timber -and re- 

 generation failed continuously because of mice, drought, insects, 

 late frosts, etc. The annual production between 1762 and 1784 was 

 one-eighth of a cord an acre, which shows how extremely decrepit 

 these forests must have been. 



Today the pineries of Ysenburg are among the finest and yield 

 about the highest net revenue of any in the Rhine valley. The 

 method used to secure regeneration is totally unlike that employed 

 at Eberstadt and yet the type of soil seems about the same. When 

 the pines are about 80 years old and about 10 inches in diameter, 

 cuttings (seed cuttings and preparatory cuttings) are made in such 

 a way as to open up the crown. There results a luxuriant natural 

 regeneration which indicates that there must be more fertility present 

 than in the soil of the Eberstadt pineries. When this regeneration 



