FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 79 



Where wood pasture is still permitted, it is advisable to fence the trees 

 until they are so grown as to suffer little or none by cattle. 



To that end the tiriie of preservation from injury has been fixed : 



For beech, 20 to 30 years. 



For oak, 20 to 25 years. 



For elm, white beech, maple, ash, pine, fir, larch, 15 to 20 years. 



For birch, willow, alder, linden, aspen, 12 to 16 years. 



The above applies to the cultivation of tall trees ; for underwood the time 

 of protection is shorter. 



Destruction of forests is caused only by wind and snow, which are often 

 the occasion of a great deal of windfall and snow-break of timber. Partic- 

 ularly serious consequences, however, do not arrise from them, except in cases 

 of extraordinary breakage, occasioning a depression of the price of such tim- 

 ber. No other ravage occurs in Saxony. 



Reclamation of sand dunes or waste places by tree planting is not prac- 

 tised. 



Timber is chiefly imported from Austria (Bohemia, Galicia, Hungary). 

 As to the quality of the imported timber, it ranks with the Saxon.. 



The duty chargeable: on timber simply worked with axe and saw is 2^ 

 cents per 100 pounds; on one compact yard (festmeter) worked in the same 

 manner, 30 cents. 



SEED DEALERS. 



Sellers of seeds and shoots are not found in Saxony. The government 

 draws its supplies from Thuringia. The government districts, however, sell 

 offshoots and seeds to private persons. 



JOS. T. MASON, 



Consul. 

 United States Consulate, 



Dresden, February 23, i88j. 



DUSSELDORF. 



REPORT OF CONSUL PARTELLO. ' 



The consular district of Diisseldorf, in which is included the agency at 

 Essen, is located in the valley of the Rhine, in a level section of open coun- 

 try, abounding in small cities and villages, covered with manufacturing estab- 

 lishments of different kinds, with but here and there small patches of wood- 

 land or forest scattered through the district, the country having been cleared 

 off, and I'f forests ever existed to any great extent,- they have become a thing 

 of the past. 



It is, therefore, difficult to obtain statistics of a reliable nature, particu- 

 larly on the subj ect of tree-planting or culture, and for that reason this report 

 has been much delayed. 



