FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 9 1 



the Tyrol Hills of great tracts of mountain land covered with trees. The 

 thinness of the soil on the mountains and the great weight of the recent un- 

 precedented snowstorms are the causes of these landslides. 



RECLAMATION OF SAND DUNES. 



It is a fundamental principal in Baden that no inch of soil shall remain 

 waste or useless ; when not suited to agricultural purposes it must be planted 

 with trees. Although such is the ruling principal in Baden, the year 1884 

 shows the following number of square hectares of waste land converted into 

 forests: State, 122.68; towns, 79.60; corporations, 11.23 ; landlords, &c., 

 4.42; other private parties, 61; total, 278.93 hectares. Some of this terri- 

 tory was reclaimed from sand wastes. 



METHODS OF CULTIVATING AND PLANTING. 



In reclaiming such places seed is seldom if ever used ; plants a year or 

 more old are selected for the purpose. Before any planting is done, however, 

 the soil must be prepared for the young trees. This preparation sometimes 

 consists of a mere scratching up of the surface or by plowing and weeding 

 out of weeds, and even a few years may be given to planting vegetables. 

 The soil is sometimes prepared all at once or in patches here and there. We 

 must make a difference in the sand places. There are the sand wastes along 

 the seacoast and those in the interior. To give the sand dunes a "bindung," 

 cohesiveness to fit them for wood and forest purposes, a beginiiing is made by 

 planting sandhofer or sand oats, arundo arenaria, a kind of reed grass, or 

 sand reed, elymus arenarius. Just as soon as the soil shows sufficient cohe- 

 sive properties so that no longer doubt exists as to its fitness to grow trees, 

 young shoots are selected and planted. 



In beds oi flugsand, quick or drift sand in the interior, the seeds mentioned 

 above may be sown or pfriemen, broom or feather grass {spartium scoparium) 

 may be planted. The whole surface will be so arranged that small fences or 

 shelter hedges will be run across the surface and arranged in such away as to 

 meet and break the force of the winds, facing, of course, that direction from 

 which the most dangerous winds usually blow ; then behind these little fences 

 young Scotch firs a year or so old may be planted. These young trees must 

 be planted very deep in order that the roots may set or' sink deep. 



In Hungary also young shoots from the Canadian poplar are used. These 

 young shoots are laid in rows across the sand waste in such a way as to break 

 the force of the winds ; the youn^ shoots are also put in obliquely with the 

 lower parts against the wind. It is always a great advantage if trees can be 

 planted on the windy side years before the sand wastes are taken under care 

 for reclamation ; the results are, of course, much safer and quicker. 



SOURCES OF Lumber supply. 



The principal source of Germany's lumber supply is Thuringia, Baden, and 

 the Black Forest country. Lumber is also imported from Austria, Hungary, 

 Slavonia and America. The traffic in lumber is lively and yet varied. In 



