154 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



Taking the Scotch fir as a standard, foresters, knowing the 

 rate of growth of different species, may calculate, approxi- 

 mately, from the above table, the yield to be expected from 

 the kinds of timber trees usually i grown. 



As regards the climate where these forests grow, we feel 

 sure, from a critical enquiry into the subject and from obser- 

 vation, that it has nothing to do with the quality of the timber 

 produced as compared with that produced in Great Britain 

 and Ireland. The conditions of temperature, rainfall, soil, 

 gales, etc., are much the same as in this country. The fine 

 level lands . are not, as a rule, planted in Germany, but the 

 mountain ranges are usually unbroken forest of a density 

 unknown with us. The principal timbered regions of Germany 

 and North Europe lie in the same parallel as the British Islands, 

 or further north than that, and in Central Germany the moun- 

 tains are clothed with timber up to three thousand feet and 

 upwards. In Britain it is not considered worth while to plant 

 to nearly such a high elevation, and over-thinned woods, one 

 can believe, are not likely to succeed under such conditions. 

 The system of culture adopted alone explains the main 

 difference between the forests at home and those on the 

 Continent* In Germany the cost of planting, or regeneration 

 in any form, is very much less than with us. In the first place, 

 very few species are grown, and in the second, the trees are 

 raised in the forest and planted out very small. Failures are, 

 consequently, few, and the cost of planting is fractional com- 

 pared to the cost of planting on estates in Britain. In fact, 

 buying trees is almost unheard of, but seed is sometimes 

 purchased. Strict economy is the rule, from beginning to end 

 of the rotation period, and accounts are kept with care and 

 •exactitude. 



Under some circumstances, in Germany, they have what 

 are called " two-storied high forest," which resembles woods in 

 this country that have been under-planted, with this difference, 

 that in Germany the second or later crop is allowed to grow, up 

 -with and between the older crop, so that, practically, two 

 distinct even-aged woods exist on the same area, and the two 

 crops are cut over at the same time. (Schlich, vol. i., p. 220.) 

 This system may be likened to the practice of growing regular 

 crops of underwood in woods and cutting them down when 

 the trees are cut; but in Germany two-storied forest is only 



* Colonel Pearson, in his evidence before the select committee on forestry, 

 stated that even in France, climatic conditions were much the same as in 

 Britain, as far as related to forestry. 



