38 Germany. 



Natural regeneration by coppice was in quite general 

 practice and satisfactory enough for fuelwood produc- 

 tion. The system of coppice with standards was also 

 frequently practised, the standards 20 or 30 to the acre 

 being "reserved for the lord." 



In the timber forest the unregulated selection system 

 was contiaued generally through the period, although in 

 1454 we find in the Hartz Mountains a transition to a 

 seed tree management, a few seed trees or groups of seed 

 trees being left on the otherwise cleared area, somewhat 

 in the manner of the French methode a tire-aire. To- 

 ward the end of the 15th century we find here and there 

 a distinction made between timber forest, where no fire- 

 wood is to be cut, and "leaf forest" which is to serve the 

 latter purpose, and is to be treated as coppice. 



Toward the end of the period we find also various pro- 

 visions which are unquestionably dictated by the fear of 

 a scarcity of timber. The discovery that pasture pre- 

 vents natural regeneration led to a prohibition of pas- 

 turing in the newly cut felling areas. In 1488 we find 

 already a diameter limit of 18 inches — just as is being 

 advocated in the United States now — as a basis for con- 

 servative exploitation when the city of Brunswick is 

 buying stumpage and in the contract is limited to this 

 diameter and in addition obligated to leave 15 oaks or 

 aspen per acre for seed trees. 



Attempts of regulating the use of given forest areas by 

 division into felling areas are recorded ia 1359 by the 

 city forest of Erfurt, when 286 acres were divided into 

 seven felling areas. It is questionable whether this re- 

 ferred to a coppice with short rotation or whether a 

 selection forest with seven periodic areas is meant. 



