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Silver Fir and Spruce in the Black Forest. 



The Black Forest mountains are the home of the silver fir. The winters are severe — 

 five to eight feet of snow on the hills from November till April ; three feet in the valleys 

 from December till March. They are partly regulated forest, in which, however, a gradual 

 felling for their reproduction is carried on over one-third or one-fourth of the whole area 

 at once, from which every year during thirty or forty years the largest trees are removed, 

 while the rest are allowed to grow larger during the remaining years. This is done, as 

 the price these large trees fetch is much higher in proportion than that of the smaller 

 ones, and all are felled and removed in one piece if possible. Natural reproduction is 

 chiefiy resorted to in these forests, which, in consequence of the young plant growing well 

 in the shade of the old trees, is very easily accomplished, even though it is extended over 

 such a long period as thirty or forty years. To be able to keep as many trees as possible' 

 growing on the lands on which the regeneration of the forest is going on, the branches up 

 to one or two-thirds of the height of the tree are sawn off to admit air and light to the 

 young plants below, which does no harm to the silver fir, but, on the contrary, is said to 

 aid the more rapid increase of the trunk, while the branches are used for litter. This 

 sawing off of the branches is commenced from above by men who earn about forty-five cents 

 a day. Regular seed-bearing seasons occur at longer or shorter intervals, but nearly every 

 year there is sufficient seed to increase the number of young plants where it is wanted. 

 Moss cover is very favourable for the germination of the seed, whilst in such places as 

 get covered with grass or weeds, or where for other reasons the seed does not germinate 

 freely, the soil is at once prepared, by clearing and slightly loosening it in strips and 

 patches, for the reception of the seed, the germination of which is thus facilitated. If 

 the open space in the forest is so large that the seed from the old trees does not reach 

 the whole of it, sowing by hand is resorted to early, so as to let the young plants be as 

 nearly as possible of the same age. If, by the time the old trees are nearly all removed, 

 there are still some parts not covered with young trees, planting is resorted to. For the 

 better growth of such planted trees the existing groups are somewhat rounded off, to 

 avoid the young trees planted having to struggle with the others, perhaps already twenty 

 to thirty years old ; and where, on incompletely stocked spaces, which have to be filled 

 up by planting, there are single trees of some twenty or thirty years, they are cut down 

 altogether ; or, if they are standing in numbers, and are not quite so large, some of the 

 lower branches are lopped off the outer ones, so as not to interfere with those planted. 

 These plants are either taken from nurseries or out of the forest, if the latter have not 

 grown in too deep shade, which would render them liable to suffer on being removed to 

 open places. 



The se^d is collected with some risk from the trees in October, before the cones open 

 and it falls out. As the seeds are very oily, they are best kept in the cones or sown at 

 once. The sowing is done in prepared beds in rows four inches apart, and after germina- 

 tion the ground is covered with moss to keep in the moisture. The seedlings one year 

 old are transplanted into rows six or seven inches apart, and three inches between the 

 plants in the rows, after which the soil between them is also covered with moss. Here 

 they have to remain for two or three years before they are fit for transplanting. Shade 



