246 FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



feet per acre. This is tlie average amount of wood per acre which we should strive to keep in 

 stock in order to get the full benefit of the productive capacity of the soil and insure an equal 

 growth and equal annual cut for all time. In reality this ideal is, of course, never reached, but 

 this so-called normal forest, conceived in ideal condition, serves as a guide in the working plans, 

 and the conception is a most useful and important one. To put it into practice we must either 

 save at first on the annual cut until normal condition is attained, or we may increase the cut if 

 more old timber than necessary for normal stock is on the ground. Additional reserves may also 

 be provided for to avoid any unforeseen shortcomings in the budget due to insect ravages, mis- 

 takes in calculations, etc. 



We can not here enter into the details of all the work of the valuator, being satisfied with 

 having indicated in general the methods pursued. In coppice management, of course, all these 

 fine calculations become unnecessary, and the periodical or annual cut is determined by area mainly. 



From the general plan thus elaborated the special plan for the first period or half period of 

 the management is worked out in detail both tor fellings, cultures, and other work, road building, 

 drainage, etc. This special plan, then, is the basis on which the local manager finally makes out 

 the annual plans of work, which are submitted for revision and approval to the controlling officers. 

 Thus, while the general and special working plans lay down the general principles, the annual 

 plans, into which enter considerations of immediate needs and financial adjustments, permit such 

 deviations from the general plans as may appear needful from year to year. Every ten or twelve 

 years, or at other stated periods, a careful revision of the whole regulation work is made, in which 

 the carefully noted experiences of the manager are utilised to correct and perfect the plans. 



FOREST PROTECTION. 



In this country the greatest danger to the forest, besides the indiscriminate cutting, is to be 

 found in fires. How little this scourge of American forests is known in Germany may appear 

 from the statistics of fires in the Government forests of Prussia (representing 60 per cent of the 

 German forest area), 56 per cent of which are coniferous, which show that railroading may be 

 carried on without the necessity of extra risks, if proper precautions are provided. During the 

 years 1882-1891 there had occurred 156 larger conflagrations — 96 from negligence, 53 from ill will, 

 3 from lightning, and only 4 from locomotives. Seven years out of ten are without any record of 

 fire due to this last cause. 



From 1884 to 1887 fires occurred in Prussia on 3,100 acres, but only 1,450 were wholly 

 destroyed, i. e., 380 acres per year, or 0.005 per cent of the total aiea of Government forests. In 

 Bavaria during the years 1877-1S81 only 0.007 per cent of the forest area was damaged by fire, 

 and the loss represented only 0.02 per cent of the forest revenues. During the unusually hot and 

 dry summer of 1892 only 49 fires, damaging more or less 5,000 acres, occurred. 



Besides the thorough police organization and the compartment system, which permits not only 

 ready patrolling but also ready control of any fire, the system of safety strips, described in the 

 report of this division for 1892, where a fuller discussion of this subject may be found, prevents 

 the spread of fire from locomotives. 



A much more fruitful cause of damage to the cultivated forests of Germany is found in insect 

 ravages. The annual expenditures in fighting and preventing these in the Prussian Government 

 forests in ordinary times amount to about $50,000. Caterpillars and beetles eat the leaves, and 

 thereby reduce the amount of wood produced and the vitality of the tree; bark beetles follow and 

 kill it j borers of all kinds injure the timber. Ilence entomology, the study of life habits of the 

 injurious insects and the methods of checking their increase, forms part of the forester's work. 



Fungus growth and decay kill the standing tree and injure the cut timber. The study and 

 methods of counteracting this injury form, therefore, part of the work of the forester. 



FOREST CROP PRODUCTION OR SILVICULTURE. 



While we have so far considered mainly the administrative and managerial features of German 

 forestry practice, we come now to the most important and truly technical branch of the art, 

 namely, the forest crop production or forest culture. This part we may call forestry proper, for 

 while the methods of forest regulation, forest utilization, and forest protection, which may be 



