REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 57 



with pine on the Ysenburg range and in the Frankfurt forests one 

 might suppose that oak is usually a failure here, but such is not the 

 case. Above the frost dells it succeeds very well, and indeed, the 

 primeval forests of this region contained some of the largest and 

 finest oaks of the world, a few of which are still to be seen on the 

 Mittledick range. The Frankfurt forest contains a plantation of 

 oak, nearly ioo years old, with subservient natural undergrowth of 

 beech and hornbeam which looks as good as any of the natural re- 

 generation of oak seen in the Spessarts, so famous for its oaks. 

 Here in the Rhine valley, however, the beech shows a tendency to 

 become the dominant tree if not held in check. This stand of oak 

 contains, including the beech, some of which are of merchantable 

 size, 19,000 board feet <to the acre. 



The annual net revenue of the Frankfurt town forests is $16 a 

 hectare, or about $6.50 an acre, in spite of the fact that many a 

 sacrifice is made for landscape and recreation purposes. 



5 THE ODENWALD 



The Odenwald (plate 7) is a hilly or semimountainous region 

 of considerable extent lying east of the Rhine valley and north of 

 the Neckar river and Heidelberg. The underlying formation is 

 granite at lower elevations and chiefly sandstone at the highest 

 elevations, a factor which, taken in connection with the absence of 

 limestone, has played a very important part in the development of 

 forestry in some parts of the Odenwald. 



The deep, broad valleys of the Odenwald are devoted largely to 

 agriculture, while the steepest slopes and higher summits are given 

 over to forests. The primeval growth of this region was entirely 

 hardwoods, but the region is rapidly changing in aspect as the 

 extensive planting of conifers (spruce, fir and pine) which has 

 been going on for the past hundred years begins to dominate the 

 landscape (plate 8). 



Out of the many interesting ranges in the Odenwald it would be 

 hard to pick any one which is typical of the whole region. Each 

 range, in which some particular policy has been carried out for a 

 long term of years, presents features peculiarly different from 

 every other range. 



The policy of the state has been to acquire by purchase the small 

 woodlands belonging to the farmers. The latter, however, finding 

 the raising of Christmas trees remunerative, are not anxious to 

 sell, and it is quite curious that within the state of Hesse, which 



