REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 55 



these adjoining ranges. Like the former ranges, most of the Frank- 

 furt range lies in the frost dells of the Rhine valley, but within 

 short distances there is much diversity in the quality of the soil, 

 and in consequence a corresponding diversity of stands. 



Along a small stream close to the suburban villa colony of Neu- 

 Ysenburg is a stand of hardwoods which contains some fine alders 

 up to 2 feet in diameter, not very straight but about the best seen 

 anywhere in Germany. This stand also contains some excellent 

 maple, ash, basswood, hornbeam, oak and beech. The hornbeam 

 logs sell, in the woods, on the ground, for $35 a thousand feet, board 

 measure, and are used in the manufacture of waterwheel cogs. The 

 oak, which is here of fair quality, brings $31 a thousand feet for 

 ties and veneers. The best veneer logs of oak in this compartment 

 were about 24 inches in diameter and contained about 350 board 

 feet, on the average, and sold at auction there in the woods for 

 about $82 each. 



A mixed hardwood forest of this type is the best place to see the 

 attention to detail and order which the German forester brings to 

 his operations (plate 5). The firewood resulting from the trunks 

 and limbs of the trees unsuitable for timber, is piled into neat cubic 

 meter piles of split oak, split maple, split alder, round oak, round 

 maple, etc. The smaller and more crooked branchwood and root- 

 wood of each species is also piled separately, and for each and 

 every one of these " grades " of firewood the forest administration 

 receives a different price. The small limbs and twigs are also 

 gathered up and tied into bundles which are sold for a small sum, 

 but apparently not at a profit. That genius is an infinite capacity for 

 taking pains finds here a visible demonstration in forestry. 



The Frankfurt town forests also contain an interesting stand of 

 American white pine (plate 6), about 60 years old. It was origin- 

 ally made with alternating rows of spruce and oak. The oak is now 

 nowhere to be seen, and the spruce has survived only in part. The 

 white pine having dominated the situation from the start is very 

 branchy and unfit for a high grade of lumber, and yet the revenue 

 from this stand is very large, but from the sale of cones to seed 

 establishments rather than from timber. The pines number about 

 150 to the acre, and spruce less than half as many, out of an 

 original 1500 pines and spruce to the acre. The total sectional area 

 of the white pine alone is 153.6 square feet, which with a form 

 height of 150 means a stand of 35,000 board feet to the acre. This 

 is far from being the best stand of white pine in this part of 



