FOREST NURSERIES AND NURSERY METHODS IN EUROPE. 209 



feet wide and extend from the central walk to the side of the inclosure. The 

 seedlings are placed in longitudinal rows, the latter being eight inches apart. 

 The natural soil is a rich loam, mixed with humus, to which fertilizers have been 

 added each year after the removal of the plants. As a result the four-year-old 

 transplants when taken up are strong, thrifty, and from fourteen to eighteen 

 inches in height, with a well-developed root system. Owing to the moist climate 

 of the French Vosges, the great altitude and the close proximity of the forest, it is 

 but seldom that the beds require any watering. 



In other districts of France many of the nurseries are used in part, and in 

 some instances entirely, for the propagation of broad-leaved species. In the Forest 

 of Roumare, near Rouen, there is a pepinicre which is stocked wholly with beech 

 and oak. The beech is raised in seed beds, and then transplanted the same as is 

 done with the conifers. The surrounding forests, however, are composed almost 

 entirely of Scotch pine in pure stands. But it will be noticed throughout 

 Northern France that, where a clean cutting occurs in a forest of the latter species, 

 the ground is often left to reforest itself by natural dissemination. 



There are several nurseries in the Forest of Rouvray — Department of the 

 Seine — which are largely occupied by conifers, and in which the coniferous beds 

 are frequently failures, owing to the depredation of rabbits. The foresters seemed 

 to be unable to protect their inclosures from these pests. This is not surprising, 

 for our American nurseries suffer serious injury at times from rodents. In the 

 winter of 1904, after a fall of snow, one of the large forest-tree nurseries in 

 Northern Illinois suffered a loss in white pine seedlings, caused by a swarm of 

 field mice that cut off the stems close to the ground and inflicted damages 

 estimated at $5,000 before their presence was discovered. 



P>elgmm. 



Although Belgium has no place on the pages of our forestry textbooks, 

 seventeen per cent of its area is well wooded. Its forests are of a high class 

 that indicate an intelligent, intensive management, and the extensive formation 

 of artificial ones is provided for by numerous nurseries. 



In the great Forest of Soignes, at Groenendael, there is a pepinicre of two 

 acres, in which some interesting experiments are carried on at the present time 

 in addition to the regular work. Some germinating beds are set apart for testing 

 the relative efficacy of various materials for covering and protecting the tender 

 yearlings. For this purpose trials are made of straw, dead leaves, moss, dried 

 manure, humus, plain earth pressed down around each plant and plain earth applied 

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