GERMAN FOREST MANAGEMENT — SILVICULTURE. 251 



liability of being killed by frost. The final catting of tbe former generation of trees leaves many 

 thousand little seedlings closely covering the soil with a dense shade. 



That the method of management must differ according to species and local conditions is 

 evident; and in a mixed forest especially are the best skill and judgment of the forester required 

 to insure favorable conditions for each kind to be reproduced. It is to be expected that such 

 seedlings are rarely satisfactory over the wliole area, and that baie places of too large extent must 

 be artificially sown or planted. 



Another method is the u management in echelons" (Coulissen, Saumsehlag), which consists 

 in making the clearings in strips, and awaiting the seeding of the clearing from the neighboring 

 growth. It is applicable to species with light seeds, which the wind can carry over the area to be 

 seeded, such as larches, firs, spruces, most pines, etc. 



The cuttings are made as much as possible in an oblong shape, with the longest side at right 

 angles to the direction of the prevailing winds. The breadth of the clearing, on which occasional 

 reserves of not too spreading crowns may be left, depends of course on the distance to which the 

 wind can easily carry the seed which is to cover the cleared area. Observation and experience 

 will determine the distance. In Germany, for spruce and pine, this has been found to be twice the 

 height of the tree; for larch, five or six times the height; for fir, not more than one shaft's length. 

 From 200 to 360 feet is perhaps the range over which seeding may be thus expected. One year 

 rarely suffices to cover the cleared area with young growth, and it takes longer i\\ proportion to 

 the breadth of the cutting. This method is very much less certain in its forestal results than the 

 next named, and more often requires the helping hand of the planter to fill out bare places left 

 uncovered by the natural seeding. But it is the one that seems to interfere least with our present 

 habits of lumbering, and with it eventually the first elements of forestry may be introduced into 

 lumbering operations. 



To be sure, it requires from three to eight times the area usually brought under operation, but 

 instead of going over the whole area every year it may be operated in a number of small camps 

 systematically placed along a central road connecting the different camps or cuttings with the mill. 



As a rule the pine forests in Germany are reproduced by artificial plantations, the spruce 

 forests by either natural or artificial regeneration, or both combiiied, while the beech forests are 

 entirely reproduced as described above, oaks and other hard woods being usually planted, although 

 a return to a more extended use of natural reproduction is noticeable. 



IMPROVEMENT CUTTINGS—- THINNINGS. 



The principles which underlie the practice of thinning out young growths in order to accel- 

 erate their development have been theoretically well developed, but the practice in Germany 

 remains behind the theory. The difficulty of disposing of the material taken out in the thinnings 

 discourages the practitioner, and the financial value of the operation in the acceleration of the 

 remaining crop is not fully appreciated. 



A few results of German practice in thinning may serve to giye an indication of its value. 



A natural growth of pine (Scotch) which was thinned when six years old showed an increased 

 rate of accretion three times as great as that of , the part not thinned, which was also deficient in 

 height growth. 



A 50-year-old spruce (Norway) growth, having been twice thinned, showed an average accretion 

 22 per cent greater than the part not thinned. 



A growth of spruce (natural sowing), slightly mixed with maple, aspen, willow, and ironwood, 

 when 15 years old was opened to the poor population to take out firewood; thus one-half of the 

 growth for a few years was thinned out irregularly. The part thus thinned eighteen years later 

 contained four and one-half times more wood than the undisturbed part; the former contained 

 trees of from 1 to 9 inches in diameter and 15 to G5 feet in height; the latter did not produce any 

 above 5 inches in diameter and 48 feet in height. 



Another experiment, made upon a pine growth 50 years old, showed that by interlucation the 

 rate of growth within eleven years stood three to one and three-fourths in favor; of the thinned part. 



Another writer planted Scotch pine 6 feet apart; two years later he planted the same ground 



