206 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



The principal species growing in the Camaldoli nursery are: Silver fir, Norway 

 spruce, longleaf pine, stone pine, Austrian pine, larch, beech, chestnut and sycamore 

 maple. 



No lath frames are used for shade. Protection from heat and drought is 

 obtained when necessary by using pine brush, which is stuck into the ground 

 on the sunny side of the beds. Screens of thatched straw are also used for the 

 same purpose. Unlike other nurseries in Europe, small trees, twenty-five feet in 

 height, or thereabouts, are standing at intervals of twenty feet throughout the 

 greater part of the area, and their moving shade contributes to the refreshment 

 and protection of the tender plants. An ample supply of water for irrigation is 

 obtained from a small, artificial lake situated on the side of a hill just above the 

 nursery. 



The beds containing the transplants are kept in fine condition, all the plants 

 being alive and green, and at even spaces in the rows. In some of the seed beds, 

 however, bare spots may be seen at times, due to the destructive work of birds 

 and squirrels. These blanks are also liable to occur after an unusually wet season, 

 when the excessive moisture prevents to some extent the germination of the seeds. 



The management of this nursery is in charge of a forestry official who is 

 termed in Italy a "brigadier," a title somewhat puzzling to the foresters of other 

 countries who may have served in the army. The work of preparing, planting 

 and weeding the beds is done almost wholly by women at daily wages of about 

 thirty cents each. One woman will set out about 1,200 seedlings in the trans- 

 plant beds in a day, a day's work being counted as ten hours. Hence the cost 

 of transplants is only one fourth of that in American nurseries. 



Although somewhat of a digression, some mention seems pardonable here of 

 the high forest about Camaldoli, which consists mostly of silver fir, unmixed with 

 other woods. An hour's walk to Sacre Eremo takes one over a good road through 

 the best of the timber, and affords an opportunity to see this famous species in a 

 very heavy stand per acre. The trees are tall, straight and of large diameter, 

 the dense growth indicating a possible yield of 70,000 feet, board measure, per 

 acre, exclusive of the minor product. It was planted by the monks of Camaldoli 

 over a century ago. Protection from fire is attained by patrols, and by watchmen 

 posted in little cabins placed on surrounding hilltops and mountain peaks, from 

 which they announce by signals the first appearance of smoke. 



But on this tract, containing 3,600 acres, no cutting is seen. In 1901 the 

 government enacted a law that no timber should be cut in a public forest within 

 a certain distance of any summer resort. Perhaps the Italian legislators had read 

 the restrictions in the forestry clause of the State Constitution of New York and 



