Year: 1868

LETTERS FROM BAYARD TAYLOR. 81


FOREST CULTURE IN MIDDLE GERMANY.


r"~ ''' 'p''' GOTTA Germany. 1867


The time is nearer at hand than most Ameri-
cans suppose when an important question for US will


be- not how we can most rapidly exterminate our for
ests but how best preserve them Trees with MS
are simply timber. The services assigned to them in
the economy Of nature are well known to every man
Of science and have been announced TO the public
over and over again but the public only believes
when il begins to suffer- and, in our political system
a physical cause more OF less remote from certain
effects, might well not exist. Unless it can be
plainly from every mans door there can be no
general movement in favor of o remedy. From year
to year freshets become frequent and destruc-
tive brooks shrink in volume and springs disappear;
the temperature Of certain districts is more variable
and extreme than formerlyyet all these phenomena,
resulting directly from dimnution Of forests. are
accepted as something natural and inevitable. In
Kansas land consisting mostly of treeess plains,
bounties have been established for the planting of
timber. None of the older States, however, has yet
taken the first step to guard against the destruction
of its woodland -..,-.


1t is perhaps hundred years since the care OF the
forests has been made o branch Of tho Government
in Germany. The subdivision of the country
into O multitude of princpalites has had one good
effect--it has prevented any considerable part OF
Germany from being despoiled of its timber In
every State, no matter how small tracts OF forest
land were preserved for the sake of game the chase
being a prerogative of the sovereign. The forests
which were not included in the prinoely domains
gradually disappeared but the injury done to the
whole country was much less than in France where
at least century will be required 70 restore tne Ost
eanilibrium of temperature and rainfall. In Ger
many the evil has been arrested, rather late IL Is
true; yet the adoption Of practical system proves
that 1t is in the power OF Man 70 remedy MS own


mischief and redeem the Earth from his own Thought


No part of Germany has suffered more from the
loss of its forests than Thtrnga and none
at present so thorough system OF forestcultnre In
the Middle Ages, the southern slopes OF the horsei
berg near Eisenach, were covered With vineyards;
grapes would not rpen there once In fiye years
the H0rsel now shallow brook, in which the herd
bows paddle was then a navigable stream. Ihe sue
cession of long, rolling hills between TINS and the
Hartz were then crested with dense plne-fores5, IN
terposng barrier to the winds which now sweep
down unchecked from the North Sea- Although the
climate is naturally moist severe drou1hsa arc nos
uncommon. The pbenomena called o cloud-Dufst
(the sudden lettiDg-down OF tremendous masses OF
rain within contracted area) has become frequent,
and occasions great damage. Yet all these destrnc-
the preservation of the forests all that part OF the
mountains chain within the Duchy OF SaxeEoouIg Iyg
Gotha and the neighboring states oi SAKE ennaf'


The laws in relation 10 forests are shaped accorung
10 two simple principles First limit Is set TO the
amount of timber which may be feed IN any one year.
second whatever is feled is Immediately replaced by
planting The former diminution OF forests mas not
only ceased but in some districts they are actuay
N the natural consumption Of TIMBER and have no
doubt that there was less throughout Middle oeI-
many at the close of the wear 1873 than there now
In ISiS and 40 the revolutionary movement was
characterzed in like manner by the destruction of
trees The princes lament TO this day oyer the
slaughter of their game in those ~ taS t,e @
this privilege Once. the forests were preserved SOLE
ly for the sake Of the game now the
is the main thing, and the game Is retained sinpy
because there is place for il. 49,


The chief forest-oficials must be men Of intelli-
qence, They must have good knowledge OF botany
aud geology In addition TO tnoroug9 av en
mustpknow the natural succession Of timber In all
posslble localities the prevalent WINDS and their In


uences on vegetation the psceS o. now tSs sna
tain roofs. The knowledge which may be available
for one valley or slope will not answer ior another.


Here where pine Or M so %Ca u pusn sr tso
light in growing. forest sllfully planted IN Ger;
tain location may shelter miles OF young TIMBER eng
hasten its maturity by twenty years. is an ntr-
cate a profound, an endless study and one OF the
noblest TO which man can devote his life One VINO
does not lore trees can never succeed 10 ~ ior ms
best knowledge will come through sympathy with
the object The former Duke was an enthusiastic
treelover and to this circumstance, mainly attrb-
ute the perfect culture of the forests In the Duchy
There Is nothing like it anywhere in the world


In those parts Of the mountains where the culture
has been longest applied, the natural forest with it's
wildness its irregularity and it's arbitrary growth,
has ceased TO exist. The sleeps arg covered, from
base to summit with what may DO called an artcadl
forest. Every tree has been planted, and, up TO a
certain age has been tended and directed. Passing
along the base of such forest and looking upward,
YOU see regular colonnades of trunks, straight as
lances, diminishing away until they vanish In mys-
terous gloom. should have supposed to plant the
trees in quincunx would have given more room aud
have better prevented the washing down OF the
scanty soil; but they are always in parallel rows.
From the summit of mountain you overlook all the
stages of growth from the yearling nursery, where
the thousands OF green specks are barely Visible
among the grass and heather. to the ripe forest,
whose wilderness of nteraced boughs has at last hid
den tho traces of art and resumed the livery OF ma
ture Until the trees are thirty or forty years DID,


they show they have been planted Where the slopes
from base TO summit but where the soil Is scanty,
or the draft of wind is unusually strong they are set
in curves, obiquely to the slope Of the mountain;
tho space and the increase of timber produced by
this economy cannot be less than % per cent above


At sorne points there are nurseries where the seed
lings which shoot up everywhere In the older forests
set for year or two, in order to acquire little
more yigor. The young trees set in their places
when about foot in hight When the soil is good,
they arc placed from two to three feet apart and
suffered TO grow up IN an almost % taicket
or for manufacturing purposes. The boughs Of the
remainder are then trimmed, and they are left to
themselves. The age at which the timber Is mature
depends soil and stuation varying from ninety to
ahundred and twenty years. Perhaps century would
be q fair average for the Thuringian forest OF
course when system like this is thoroughly estab.
lished, the trees nearly equal in RrQwth, aud
reach their maturity at the time-so that large
tract of forest is feled at once. When the trunks
have been removed, the boughs converted into fire.
wood and carried away, the stumps and main roots
are then dug up and the ground leveled Next year
there is already young forest IN the place of the old
one, and year by year band Is taken away and
added. All over the mountains one sees tracts of
forest which slope through alstages of growth rising
with the slant of an immense green roof, from the
yearOld nurslngs 10 the trunks of century.