208 FOREST PLANTING. 



soil, which offers no difficulties for raising forest-trees, 

 unless it is too clayey and, therefore, retains too much 

 moisture. In that case we must resort to the " dam " 

 or " bed " culture, described in a former chapter, and 

 proceed accordingly. 



The slopes of the sand-stone mountains commonly con- 

 tain enough clay to bind the soil, and afford thus every 

 facility to soon re-stock the denuded woodlands there- 

 upon, except the sun and winds have parched the soil, 

 and the natural humidity sunk too deep into the subsoil 

 to be reached by the forest vegetation. In such a case 

 there is no time to lose to stop the loosened sand from 

 running down into the valleys by planting some pines, 

 especially the pinus silvestris. This modest and unpre- 

 tentious friend of the forester is the principal tree which 

 will grow on those neglected places, and render the worn- 

 out soil capable of producing, in later times, more valu- 

 able trees. 



Although the sand in the valleys of the sand-stone 

 mountains, washed from the slopes, often reaches a con- 

 siderable height, the spontaneous growth of trees there, 

 dating back perhaps hundreds and thousands of years, 

 shows that this locality is the proper place for the most 

 valuable deciduous trees, viz. : beeches and oaks. Cer- 

 tainly on such sites, if denuded for a long time, and, 

 therefore, having become sterile on the surface, we can- 

 not expect to raise, right away, beeches, as these require 

 besides a friable fertile soil, when young, ample protec- 

 tion against the sun. But the re-foresting can be 

 effected by planting pines in rows, properly distant, and 

 after the pines have reached a height sufficient to over- 

 shade and fertilize the surface soil, the interjacent open 

 rows should be planted alternately with beeches, oaks, 

 firs, and larches. It is true that in favorable years and 

 with good seeds, satisfactory results have been obtained 



