Plant and Animal Preserves in Europe 
89 
nineteen to twenty-nine feet, has been created a reservation by the 
State Forest Administration. Seventy-seven acres in the Hasbruch, 
and 121 acres in the Neuenburger Urwald (in Oldenburg), have 
been set aside and protected. These wood tracts are types of the 
very few remaining primeval forests in Germany, and the reserva- 
tion is to remain untouched. Dead trees will not be removed and 
trunks are to lie where they fall. Some of the trees are very old 
and attain considerable dimensions, an oak in Hasbruch having a 
circumference of twenty-nine feet. In Wiirttemberg, the Wildsee 
and its surroundings, in the Black Forest, have been accpiired and 
protected in an area of 185 acres. Here the hand of man is also 
excluded as far as possible. 
Moors which formerh' covered large areas of land in Germany, 
notably in the North (ierman plain, have been more and more 
threatened and endangered by amelioration. As the moors rep- 
resent the most ancient types of vegetation, are in fact relicts of the 
ice age, the rare plants growing on them should be preserved as far 
as possible. Cultivation of all available land cannot be stopped, but 
the reservation of individual moors in various parts of the country 
has been recommended and carried out to a considerable extent. 
Besides the Plagefenn, already mentioned, Zehlau, a moor of 5,829 
acres in the district of Friedland, East Prussia, has been reserved 
for the purpose of protection. Moose are still found here; but 
most important is the fact that a primitive vegetation thrives here, 
and that the indigenous moor mosses are constantly spreading, so 
that moss growth can be admirably studied and observed, particu- 
larly as in most other moors the withdrawal of the moisture by 
processes of amelioration has caused them to cease spreading, to 
become dormant. In the Danzig district, 326 acres of moor have 
lieen reserved, and in several other sections of Prussia, in Bavaria, 
and in ^^'urttemberg, moors have been set aside and preserved. 
Organizations and Administration 
The leading organization in Germany is the State Bureau for 
the Protection of Nature in Prussia. This bureau was founded in 
1906 by the Ministry for Education, and was first established in 
Danzig. In 191 0 it was removed to Berlin. Professor Hugo Con- 
wentz, who has been a pioneer in everything pertaining to nature 
protection in Germany, has been at the head of the bureau since its 
foundation. Besides its activities in discovery, exploration, and pre- 
