FOREST NURSERIES AND NURSERY METHODS IN EUROPE. 213 



twentieth of May these horizontal poles are covered with brush to protect the 

 transplants from the frost which is liable to occur in the valley. 



The total number of transplants in this nursery, in 1903. was 65,000, of which 

 17,000 six-year-old Weisstanne were to be set out in plantations the following year. 

 The Weisstanne formed the principal species raised in this plot, comprising ninety 

 per cent of the plants. The Rottanne, or Norway spruce, occupied only five beds, 

 or about three per cent of the area. There were also a bed of Sitka spruce, 

 one of Douglas fir and one of Scotch pine. But there is another nursery in this 

 revier, under the same forstmeister, in which the plants are nearly all Rottanne. 



The cost of the plants, when placed in their final position in the forest, is 

 from 2 to 4 pfennig (one half to one cent) per plant, a laborer being able to set 

 out from 1,000 to 1,200 in a day. In setting out these plants in the field he uses 

 a kind of mattock for making the holes, the same as is used in our plantations in 

 New York. The daily wage of a laborer in this range is 1 mark 80 pfennigs, and 

 hence the cost of annual planting in the forest, at the rate of 1,100 plants per 

 day, is 1.6 pfennigs per plant, which leaves the apparent cost of the nursery work 

 from .4 to 2.4 pfennig per plant, not including certain incidental expenses, which 

 increase it somewhat.* 



There are six nurseries in the Baden Revier, each about the size of the one 

 at Geroldsau ; but they vary greatly in the species propagated, some of them 

 having ninety to ninety-five per cent of their area devoted to Norway spruce. 

 The broad-leaved species are cultivated only to a small extent in this part of the 

 Schwarzwald. 



The nursery in the Wendlingen Revier, near Freiburg, is also devoted largely 

 to the propagation of the silver fir. It is a permanent one, so denoted to 

 distinguish it from the temporary ones often made to supply a local need. The 

 natural soil is from gneiss, and is a limy sand. Manure is used as a fertilizer, 

 that from cows being preferred. This is spread over the ground and spaded 

 under before the seed is sown. Thomasmehl and kainit also are used. 



The seeds in the seed beds are sown in rows, the rows being three inches 

 apart, and are dropped so thickly in the row that they nearly touch each other. 

 The beds are then covered with branches of fir or beech, which are allowed to 

 remain all summer, at first close to the ground, after which they are raised 

 gradually until they are about twenty inches high. These shades are also left on 

 through the winter to keep the ground from freezing and heaving with the frost. 

 Moss, or fine brush, laid between the rows might serve this purpose as well. 



* These figures seem somewhat questionable, but they were noted down carefully from the 

 forester's personal statement. 



