THE CULTIVATED FORESTS OF EUROPE. I9I 



rods wide. These are kept free of all inflammable material. In a coniferous forest 

 the trees stand close together, facilitating, in a dry time, the progress of a top fire. 

 These fire lanes make a break in the continuity of the crown-cover and give an 

 opportunity to check the flames. 



The small loss from forest fires is due, in a large measure, to the fact that 

 villages are numerous in the forests, and hence fire fighters are easily obtainable. 

 The European forests are not much troubled with trespassers. The woods are, as 

 a usual thing, well patrolled and the property limits are plainly marked. Where 

 watercourses, rocks, or other natural boundaries are wanting, the lines are marked 

 by artificial signs, such as heaps of earth, stones, or iron stakes. This leaves no 

 chance for the American excuse of ignorance concerning the line. 



Injaries and Diseases. 



To describe all the injuries inflicted upon the woodlands by domestic and 

 game animals, rodents, insects and fungi, would cover many times more pages 

 than can be given to this article. Besides, one hears, in Europe, general complaint 

 concerning only the deer, snow-press or snow-break, a few insects, and a few fungi. 



The deer are numerous and injure the trees by biting off the buds and young 

 shoots, often killing young plants, and crippling and stunting older ones. They 

 also injure saplings or poles by barking them in rubbing off upon them the velvet 

 from their antlers in early summer. They also tread down the seedling growth, 

 and devour acorns and beechnuts. The young trees are sometimes protected by 

 smearing the tips with a mixture of beef blood and manure, the deer refusing 

 then to eat them. Reducing the number of the deer by shooting them seems, 

 however, to be the only general remedy. 



Conifers are much damaged by snow, which at times falls in wet, large flakes 

 and hangs together as a thick, white mantle upon the crowns of the trees. 

 When the snow freezes upon the trees the danger is much increased, as it cannot 

 then be shaken off by the wind and further accumulations are facilitated. 

 Conifers from twenty to sixty years of age, and growing at an altitude of from 

 1,600 to 2,500 feet, receive the most injury. As the broad-leaf trees are without 

 foliage in winter, they are damaged only by an unusually early or late fall 

 of snow. The Scotch pine is brittle and suffers chiefly by having its branches 

 broken off. The spruce and fir are similarly injured, but, being more pliable, 

 they are often bent to the ground and sometimes have their roots torn out of 

 the soil. 



