few remaining forest regions in Germany 
where the old time servitudes, or rights of 
user, have not been extinguished. Conse- 
quently, the people of the locality continue to 
exercise certain privileges of grazing and of 
taking dead wood. But by arrangement the 
removal of dead material is restricted to the 
older stands, which reduces the interference 
with the regular management. Until one 
comes in personal contact with the operation 
of a servitude he can hardly appreciate the 
trouble that it may cause. One of the rea- 
sons why permits are required on our own na- 
tional forests in connection with free use, is 
to preclude the possibility of rights becoming 
established and prescriptive. 
The feature of the Spessart is its great 
oaks; trees up to 125 feet and over in height, 
with diameters at breast height of 2% to 3 
feet. Suddenly to come upon them one is 
forcibly reminded of the southern Appala- 
chian forest. Often the clear length is 60 or 
more feet. The Spessart oaks are noted the 
world over as producing among the finest 
white oak veneer wood. Before the war much 
was exported. The wood is characterized by 
soft, straight fibre, with regular, narrow 
rings of even growth. The larger trees are 
about 270 years old and probably originated 
in a heavy seed year that occurred during the 
Thirty Years’ war, when all the cattle and 
swine having been driven off by the roving 
bands of fighting men, the acorns had a 
chance to germinate and get well started. So 
does history beckon one at every turn in these 
Old World forests. The visitor to south Ger- 
many, who is interested in forests, should not 
omit the Spessart from his itinerary. 
THE FAMOUS 
SCHWARZWALD 
But interesting as are the beech forests of 
the Odenwald and wonderful as are the oaks 
of the Spessart, it is really to the Black for- 
est that one turns to see German forestry at 
its best. As the name implies the Schwarz- 
wald is essentially a coniferous forest, al- 
though there is much beech in mixture in 
places. In dull weather the uniform black 
tops of the spruces and firs present rather a 
somber aspect. The Black forest is well 
named. 
The Black forest is a much broken country 
topographically. Deep cut valleys with sharp- 
ly rising slopes that in the northern part run 
up to elevations of around 3,000 feet, are the 
dominant features. The underlying rocks are 
red sandstone over granite, the silver fir pre- 
ferring the latter, while the spruce is found 
naturally higher up the slope. Where artifi- 
cial planting has been done this distribution 
has sometimes been departed from. But gen- 
erally in the Black forest reproduction is se- 
cured by natural seeding, under a group-wise 
modification of the shelterwood method. On 
the higher elevations, especially those with a 
southern aspect, is found the mountain pine 
(Pinus montana); spruce and fir are however 
the predominant species. 
The Black forest lies in a roughly rectan- 
gular block in the states of Baden and Wiirt- 
temberg. It is bounded on the west by the 
Rhine valley, and extends from near Pforz- 
heim south of Karlsruhe, to the Swiss border 
near Basle. The total area is 350,000 hec- 
tares (864,500 acres), of which the larger 
part (225,000 hectares) is in the state of 
Baden; the remainder lies in Wiirttemberg. 
The forests visited are all in the northern 
part of the Black forest. In the south nearer 
the Swiss frontier, the elevations of the moun- 
tain tops are higher. The Black forest is 
owned in part by the states of Baden and of 
Wiirttemberg and, in part by princely fami- 
lies, but largely by communities, whose hold- 
ings date back 200 to 300 years. About that 
time settlers were sent in by the government 
to develop this region. These people acquired 
rights in the forest, especially for grazing, 
which during the last century were extin- 
guished, usually by giving in exchange the 
fee of a definite area, which now constitutes 
the communal forest for that particular local- 
ity. 
It is however with three areas of state 
owned forest that this letter has to do, typi- 
cal and historic examples of forest manage- 
ment in the Schwarzwald. 
THE ANCIENT 
SCHIFFERSCHAFTWALD 
The Schifferschaftwald is located near the 
little town of Forbach, a mountain village in 
the valley of the Murg river, on the lower 
reaches of which stream, near the towns of 
Gernsberg and Weissenburg, are a succession 
of saw mills, often with a small paper mill as 
a part of the plant, that work up the logs 
from the forests higher up the river. This 
forest began to be exploited as early as the 
fourteenth century. Later a company of wood 
cutters and log drivers, known as the schif- 
ferschaft, undertook the systematic rafting of 
lumber down the Rhine to Holland. “This as- 
sociation bought up some of the forest lands 
which the Count of Eberstein had mortgaged 
to his subjects and so obtained possession of 
the area now called the Schifferschaftwald. 
About a century ago the Murg river was im- 
proved for driving, by the construction of a 
succession of splash dams, some of them of 
masonry, but with the building of roads driv- 
ing was discontinued. The Murg now pre- 
sents an excellent illustration of a fully har- 
nessed steam, dams at frequent intervals util- 
izing the power directly for mills on its banks, 
or for the generation of electricity. The 
Schifferschaftwald is now owned by a stock 
company, incorporated in 1905. The state of 
Baden has obtained possession of 51 percent 
of the shares, so that in effect it is now a state 
forest. The forest has been under definite 
forest management since 1815. 
The outstanding thing about this forest is 
that althoygh it has been yielding timber for 
several centuries, it was never in more pro- 
ductive condition than it is today after a cen- 
tury of rational forest management. In ear- 
lier times much of the cutting was merely 
(42) 
