FOREST NURSERIES AND NURSERY METHODS IN EUROPE. 215 



tained annually for a long term of years. Still there are several nurseries con- 

 nected with the management of the various cantonal forests, but the technique, 

 as observed does not vary materially from that already described. 



Although nurseries are not as essential to the management of high forests in 

 Switzerland as elsewhere, a large number are used in the work of forest extension 

 and the formation of new forests on wild or cultivated land that had hitherto not 

 been used for the production of timber. From 1878 to 1885 the annual output 

 of the nurseries devoted to this purpose amounted, on an average, to 5,263,474 

 conifers and 351,430 broad-leaved plants.* 



In the "Winterthur range temporary nurseries are used to a considerable extent. 

 In some of these, when the stock is removed, a sufficient number of transplants 

 are left standing at proper intervals in the beds to form an artificial forest 

 in time on the site of the abandoned nursery plot. The permanent nurseries 

 wherever seen are in admirable condition and have an attractive appearance. 

 One of them, near Luzerne, is enclosed by a well-kept hedge instead of a fence, 

 as customary everywhere else, and is equipped with water pipes and several 

 hydrants for sprinkling the beds. 



In the canton of Zurich there is a nursery connected with the Forest Research 

 Station, in which experiments are carried on with different species of forest-tree 

 seedlings and plants. It is situated at Adlisberg, four miles from the city of 

 Zurich, at an elevation of two thousand three hundred feet above the sea. 



To determine the species suitable for planting in various parts of Switzerland, 

 soils from these places are brought to the nursery, seeds are planted, and the 

 little trees as they grow are studied and their development carefully recorded. 



An important experiment is being carried on with the seed of Norway spruce. 

 Good seed collected in the mountains, some from trees growing at an altitude of 

 one thousand five hundred feet above sea level, and some from similar trees 

 at an altitude of six thousand feet, were planted in a bed in the nursery, half of 

 the bed being given to each kind of seed. The seedlings, now six years old, 

 show a remarkable difference in height, those from the seed taken at the lower 

 altitude being twenty-four inches tall, while those from the higher altitude have a 

 height of only twelve inches. 



The natural laws under which the roots of trees are developed are being studied 

 as follows: Boxes thirty inches high, eighteen inches wide and six inches through, 

 with the sides made of glass, are filled with earth and sunk into the ground their 

 full length, the glass sides standing vertically in close contact with the earth out- 

 side the box. In each box is planted a tree, which, as it grows, sends some of 



■* U. S. Consular Reports. it 



