Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/596

592 The Frankenwald in northern Bavaria is famous for its spruce and fir. The forests of this region are regenerated from self-sown seeds and the system which is carried out with signal regularity is simple to understand and easy to work. It may be said in passing that it produces a marvelously beautiful landscape, one that can not fail to appeal to every lover of nature. The system permits of no clear cutting, so that the harvesting and the growing of trees go hand in hand. Frankenwald is a rugged region, and the hills with their steep acclivities are cut out, or cut over in strips about 300 feet wide. The strips run with the contour, and the logging is started at the top of the hills and thence proceeds downward to the valleys. Thus the second growth is situated above the old growth, and is not further damaged by the continuance of the logging operations. The rotation is 120 years, and at this age the trees average about 15 inches in diameter, and usually cut four logs to the tree. The logs are sent down dirt chutes known as "Lassen." The valleys of the Frankenwald visited are drained by three main creeks, uniting near the old town of Kronach. These creeks are used for transportation, and drives of logs, as well as small rafts, have come down them for hundreds of years. I was fortunate enough to witness the driving and splashing operations, and followed the logs to the mills located along the river.

Another of the large state forests of Bavaria is that of the Spessart Mountains, near Rohrbrun. This is one of the regions where the Bavarian kings and other royal sportsmen are wont to hunt the wild boar. The white oak of this particular forest, which appears to be identical with the English white oak, is justly famous throughout the world. So fine and even is its texture that it yields oak veneer logs of the highest value. Although there is a large amount of this timber, the owner, which in this case is the state of Bavaria, or the whole people, absolutely refuses to sell more than a small annual percentage of the entire stumpage. In this way what appears to be phenomenal prices are secured. For illustration, the price of prime oak logs in the woods, twelve to eighteen miles from a railway, has now reached an average figure of $280 per thousand feet, board measure. Please note that this is the average. The very best logs are selling at $585 per thousand feet board measure. As one who has a hearty love for trees, and one who appreciates the quiet, persistent, marvelous forces of nature set in operation by their growth and development, I felt like taking off my hat when I saw specimens of these oak trees that had individually a cash value in the market of more than a thousand dollars. Under these conditions it is readily understood why the state is eager to reproduce this oak by all means at its command. As 1911 happened to be an unusually good so-called "oak mast year," the writer had the good fortune to see something of the energetic activities of the