52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the trees every ten years. By this means he would reduce the 

 investment and extend the rotation. The obvious advantages are: 

 the reduction of the investment; greater remunerativeness of the 

 cuttings ; the rotation is extended perhaps 200 years ; sylvicultural 

 charges are reduced to a minimum ; the smaller trees left are cleanest 

 and will produce constantly better and better logs. 



On the other hand is the fact that he takes the trees nearest the 

 saw-log size and which will have the greatest price increment in the 

 next few years. He cuts away the money makers, for these large 

 trees (one-seventh of the total number) will furnish 90 per cent of 

 the increment if left. If gaps result, some of the possible increment 

 of the next largest trees will escape, weeds will result and the soil 

 run wild. 



Under conditions as they existed in Germany a few years ago, 

 his method had, from a financial standpoint, much to recommend it, 

 and it happens that at Ysenburg even now the difference between 

 the price of saw logs and mine props is not very great. As the 

 Scotch pine, however, sold at an average of $6 a thousand twenty 

 years ago and sells for $14 today (on the stump), few German 

 foresters are anxious to reduce their investment, so that Borgrave's 

 system, pure and simple, as is being carried out here to its logical 

 end as a matter of experiment, is not apt to be seen elsewhere, 

 although the influence of his reasoning is frequently to be noted in 

 the system of management practised in many places. 



Another small compartment of the Ysenburg range shows that 

 the German forester, like all of us, sometimes makes sad mistakes. 

 Oak and Scotch pine in alternating rows, fully 5 feet apart, were 

 planted by the " Tongya " 1 method 35 years ago. They wanted 

 oak, and the pine was meant to be merely an usher growth to pro- 

 tect the oak against the frost, which is bad here (the frost level 

 being 9 to 10 feet above the level of the soil), and expected to cut 

 out the pine as the oak gained a position of independence. Today 

 the oaks are nearly gone, having been choked out by the pine in 

 spite of attempts to favor the oak by lopping off many of the pines. 

 As they are 10 feet apart, they look today like a thicket of Appa- 

 lachian scrub pine. 



The oberforster has also been troubled severely in some compart- 

 ments by the work of the cutworm upon young plantations, but he 



1 Tongya: a term introduced by Schlich, indicating the cultivation of 

 potatoes, beans etc., between the rows of young trees for two or three seasons 

 to aid the growth of the trees and help offset the expense of planting and 

 weeding. 



