RESTOCKING ON HIGH MOUNTAINS. 219 



of any forest vegetation on these exposed regions. To 

 obviate this evil, the first thing to be done is to culti- 

 vate the coarser kind of mountain grasses to act as 

 a protection to the future plantations. After a few 

 years' undisturbed growth, during which the grasses 

 have been protecting the ground against the damaging 

 influence of cold, dry, and stormy weather, we can com- 

 mence planting in rows from twelve to fifteen feet 

 apart shrubs and bushes of the hardiest kind, such as 

 juniper, sorbtree, common hawthorn, etc., as a protec- 

 tion to subsequent plantations. As soon as they have 

 gained a good hold upon the soil, the intervening, 

 empty stretches should be filled with additional pro- 

 tective rows, containing, according to climatic circum- 

 stances, pines, larches, wild or dwarf pine, grey alder, 

 birch, willows, aspen-trees, etc.; while the spruce, the 

 fir-leaved pine and sometimes larch and wild mountain 

 pine should be planted later for forming the stock of 

 trees. Among the pines there is no species which 

 serves better the purpose of re-stocking steep and high 

 mountain plateaus than the oft-mentioned Austrian 

 black pine. It gets along well on declivities and high 

 situations, and all exposures seem to agree with it. 



Should pines grow well — a case which seldom occurs 

 in these high regions — it is advisable to plant the entire 

 area with pines as the stock of trees. After they have 

 fairly developed, open spaces found between them 

 should be filled in with spruces. 



But should the growth of the spruce prove satisfac- 

 tory for forming the stock of trees, larches are to be 

 used as a protection, and should be planted in rows from 

 twelve to fifteen feet distant, to serve as a windbreak to 

 the spruces which will later be planted in the alternat- 

 ing ojien spaces. For the spruce being one of the har- 

 diest trees, is able to live farthest up on the mountains, 



