NEW 
“ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND.” 
SERIES. 
VOL. III. 
ALBANY, JUNE, 1846. 
No. 6. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Is 'published on the first of each month, at Albany, N. Y., by 
LUTHER TUCKER, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
Seven copies for $5— Fifteen copies for $10,00—all payment 
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OFFICE IN NEW-YORK CITY, AT 
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where single numbers, or complete sets of the back volumes, can 
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MR. HORSFORD’S LETTERS.—NO. XI. 
MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS IN GERMANY. 
Giessen, Aug. 14, 1845. 
Mr. Tucker —I have just returned from a long walk 
with the University Professor of Forest Science. Our 
course lay through an interesting section of the ten 
thousand morgens under his direction, and enabled me 
to gather from what I saw and from his conversation, 
many facts in the range of forest culture in Germany, 
that I am confident your readers will not be unwilling 
to share with me. 
The present system of forest regulation, in its detail, 
was instituted in 1818. Previous to that period the 
woodlands were planted, trained and cut fortimber, with¬ 
out particular scientific direction. Naturally enough, 
there were many instances of exception to the best 
modes, in the growth, preservation, and removal of 
wood. The government saw clearly that in a century 
or two, at the farthest, Hessia would be robbed of its 
forest, and in great wisdom took the entire control of 
the woodlands into its own hands. Now each town 
and village has its specific amount of wood provided 
each year, and at the lowest price consistent with the 
expenditures necessary to the well-being of the forest¬ 
lands. The Mayor and Burgomasters receive so many 
cords from the forest director—each town and village 
an amount proportioned to its population. 
At the commencement of this system the people 
thought the act oppressive, but now the re-institution 
of the old arrangement would be regarded as a great 
misfortune. 
The whole is managed with an economy that would, 
to most Americans, to whom wood has as yet compara¬ 
tively little value, seem quite uncalled for. But it is 
not so. The saving of the German peasantry has quite 
as important a relation to their happiness as their ac¬ 
cumulation. 
The planting of seeds, propagation, transplanting, 
trimming and constant attendance upon the trees till 
fit for cutting, and the conversion of stems, branches, 
and roots into firewood, is every part of it, under the 
most intelligent direction; and some of your readers 
will be surprised, as I was, to learn that the course of 
study which young men must pursue to fit them for the 
posts of forest director under government, is as long and 
difficult as that of medicine. Even this does not give 
a just idea. For example: A student who has attended 
two full courses of medical lectures, in the state of 
New-York, having previously and in current time 
studied three years with a practising physician, is 
upon examination, admitted to the privileges and emolu¬ 
ments of a medical man. Here, he must not only 
have heard the courses of lectures, but he must have 
studied chemistry in the laboratory, conducting a sys¬ 
tematic course of analytical chemistry. He must have 
studied pharmacy with an apothecary, making his pre¬ 
parations; he must have presented his collections in 
botany, (and these, with an acquaintance of mine, who 
hopes to win the degree of Dr. at the close of the cur¬ 
rent year, comprise about 5000 species;) in anatomy 
he must have used the scalpel—and all this is super- 
added to the course of the Gymnasium.* 
The student of Forest Science must, after a course 
of thorough natural history—including botany, zoology, 
mineralogy, and geology—add a thorough and some¬ 
what extended course of mathematics and physics. 
Of chemistry less is requisite than for the medical stu¬ 
dent. The examination is so thorough that there is 
no hope of passing without an intimate acquaintance 
with the several departments of science particularly be¬ 
longing to the profession. Mathematics in its higher 
principle of the calculus, is called in to determine from 
accumulated data concerning the nutritive inorganic 
matters of the soil, and the rapidity of growth of dif¬ 
ferent woods, &c.; how much wood can be profitably 
cut each year; and how soon tracts will be cut away; 
how long forests may advantageously be permitted to 
stand in particular places, &c. 
Physics come in to aid in the drainage, road and 
hedge-making, surveying, &c. Botany and entomolo¬ 
gy are too obviously all essential, and scarcely less so 
are geology and mineralogy. 
In passing, through the superb gardens we saw quanti¬ 
ties of fine beets, mangel-wurzel, cabbage, carrots, &c. 
The kitchen gardens certainly promise rich treats for the 
table in the coming fall and winter. 
The chief labor in them, as in most other kinds of 
service, is performed by females. The freedom from 
weeds and the thrifty condition of all the vegetables, 
particularly attracted my attention. 
Farther on we passed fields of rye, cut and shocked 
a fortnight or more since, and wheat just being cut. 
The latter is light, not more than twelve bushels to the 
acre. It is cut while the straw is yet tough, and the 
berry still soft, with a short, abruptly curved sickle, 
which is used, not as with us, aided by the left hand, 
but as a hatchet would be. The gavels with the mass 
of little parasitical vines about the straw, are after¬ 
wards bound up with rye straw bands at a lavish expen¬ 
diture of time. The noxious Canada thistles, which are 
every where about Giessen, are separated from the 
gavels previous to binding. The rainy weather of the 
last fortnight or more, has proved the advantage of the 
careful shocking over all the grain fields. In drawing 
* The gymnasium corresponds pretty nearly with our colleges. 
Students complete their courses of mathematics aud the classics in 
them. 
