STUDY IN EUROPE FOR AMERICAN FOREST STUDENTS. 



of silvicultural laws establishes the im- 

 possibility of raising timber of good qual- 

 ity in a wood which has been open from 

 an early age. For the production of long, 

 cylindrical trunks free from branches, 

 trees must have light from above, but as 

 little side light as possible. 



Realizing that it would be impossible 

 to grow Oak timber in pure Oak woods, 

 the Bavarian foresters had to find some 

 other means of growing it. They turned 

 to nature, and they found that Oak does 

 not occur pure in the Spessart, but scat- 

 tered in small groups and single trees 

 among the Beech. They saw that the 

 Oaks growing in this way were tall and 

 straight, clean boled and cylindrical, and 

 finer upon the whole than any Oak they 

 had seen elsewhere. They noticed also 

 that the Oaks were everywhere older than 

 the Beech, with their crowns well above 

 the leaf cover of the latter and forming 

 what is called a " two-storied forest," the 

 Oak above and the Beech below. 



It was evident that " the Oak must have 

 its head in the light and its feet in the 

 shade," and that growing singly and in 

 groups in dense stands of Beech, with its 

 crown well above the general canopy, en- 

 joying the full influence of the sunshine 

 with its trunk shaded by the Beech around 

 it, conditions were suited to its develop- 

 ment. In other words it was clear that 

 the Beech served as a nurse for the Oak, 

 forcing it to grow towards the light and 

 admitting that light only from above, with 

 tall cylindrical trees, excellently adapted 

 to use as timber, as the result. Incident- 

 ally also. Beech was seen to serve still an- 

 other purpose, in shading the ground and 

 covering it with its heavy leaf litter, thereby 

 adding greatly to the moisture and fertility 

 of the forest floor. To systematize a 

 method of management easy of applica- 

 tion, embodying the good features of na- 

 ture's method without involving the same 

 prodigal use of time, was the problem. 

 If no attempt had been made to perpetuate 

 the two-storied forest of Beech and Oak, 

 it might certainly have continued to occur 

 naturally, as in the past. To trust entirely 

 to chance, however, in the perpetuation of 

 a valuable timber tree, would not have 



been good forestry in the case of a species 

 handicapped by infrequent seed years, 

 strong demands upon light and a rate of 

 growth so much slower than that of the 

 Beech as to render it constantly liable to 

 be choked out by the latter. In order to 

 counteract these difficulties, the following 

 plan was adopted : 



Spots seldom more than a fraction of an 

 acre in extent, suited especially to the Oak, 

 were selected in rnature Beech forest. 

 These were cut clean of the Beech which 

 covered them and sown broadcast with 

 acorns. After four or five years when the 

 young Oaks had obtained a start sufficient 

 to enable them to hold their own against 

 the faster growing Beech, the Beech wood 

 surrounding the Oak groups was repro- 

 duced by natui'al means ; that is, successive 

 cuttings were made in it, by which the 

 light necessary to the germination and 

 growth of Beech seedlings was admitted 

 to the soil, and after these had become 

 established in sufficient quantity, the old 

 Beech wood was gradually removed, allow- 

 ing a young wood of Beech to take its 

 place. At the same time, many young 

 Beech sprung up in the Oak groups as 

 well as around them, and the final result 

 was exactly what had been desired — a two- 

 storied forest with the Oak above and the 

 Beech below. This system has been 

 adopted permanently and every year fresh 

 blanks are cut in the Beech woods and 

 sown with acorns, thereby insuring to 

 Spessart peasants of future generations an 

 ample supply of the same fine Oak timber 

 that the present generation is enjoying. 



It may occur to the reader that although 

 the conservative system of management 

 adopted by the Bavarian government for 

 the forests of the Spessart may contain 

 some instructive features in view of the 

 interests at stake, the silvicultural treat- 

 ment of the Oak contains no hints of prac- 

 tical value for the management of Amer- 

 ican forests. It is true that so intricate a 

 method involving large expense and much 

 technical skill for its application, is justi- 

 fied in the Spessart only because the value 

 of land and timber render it profitable. It 

 is also true that such conditions do not yet 

 exist generally in America. But because 



