220 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



At the Oberwiesenthal Revier, in the Erzgebirge, along the Austrian border, 

 the technical work in the nurseries is about the same as that just described. 



The nurseries are devoted almost exclusively to the propagation of Norway- 

 spruce. The soil for the most part is of a kind known there as fillet, which is 

 composed largely of fine particles of gneiss. 



For fertilizing bone meal iaufgescJilossenes) is used exclusively, sixteen pounds 

 per are. In making a plot ready the trees are cut, the stumps taken out, the 

 ground dug up and thrown into heaps in autumn, after which the bone meal is 

 mixed with the heaps. In the following spring these heaps are spread over the 

 ground, beds are made and sown, the seed having been mixed with lead-oxide, 

 two pounds of the latter to sixteen pounds of seed. The depression in the bed 

 having been made, the seed is sown thickly in them and then covered with a thin 

 layer of fine earth that has been put through a sieve,, after which the surface is 

 pressed down gently. 



Dry branches of spruce, bare of foliage, are laid on the beds for shade, and 

 are held in place by poles laid on them. This brush is left on the beds until 

 the plants come up through the ground, when it is removed and is not used again. 

 Dead branches are used, because the spruce needles, which otherwise would fall 

 on the beds, are heating in their effect and would injure the plants. 



In July or August fresh humus is strewn between the rows, two cubic meters 

 per are. This keeps the ground moist, hinders the growth of weeds and prevents 

 heaving out by frost. This humus, composed of decayed needles, is found in the 

 forest underneath the layers of freshly fallen leaves. 



The plants are not watered. The foresters in these reviers claim that if water 

 is once used during a drought the sprinkling must be continued until rain comes, 

 or the plants will deteriorate in a noticeable degree. 



The seed beds are made one and two tenths meters wide and of any convenient 

 length. On a slope they are laid out lengthwise across the slope so that the flow 

 of water from a heavy rainfall is checked or hindered. Side paths are twenty-five 

 centimeters wide, and are made shallow, so that the beds will not dry out too 

 much along their sides. The end paths are fifty centimeters broad, and are a 

 little deeper. If the slope is such that there is danger of flooding and washing, 

 a ditch is dug near the upper side of the inclosure, which is fenced for protection 

 from deer. 



As usual, the plants are left in the seed beds until two years old, when they are 

 transplanted into other beds in the same nursery and treated with a fertilizer the 

 same as the seed beds. At Oberwiesenthal the transplant beds are nearly square, 

 three and five tenths centimeters on a side, with paths fifty centimeters wide. 



