Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/598

594 and is the first technical forestry school ever established. It has always stood in the front rank of forest schools. Again, the forestry of Saxony is associated with, and has been largely influenced by, Dr. Max Pressler, the father of forest finance and the inventor of many efficient forest implements.

The average rate of revenue from all the state forests of Saxony is close to 2 per cent. It should not be forgotten that the Saxon forests have gradually risen in value during the past 100 years at an annual rate of 3 per cent.; that is, the total income, counting both cash returns and latent revenue, amounts to 5 per cent. One of the largest and most progressive lumbermen in the United States has declared he could not see a cash revenue of more than 2 per cent, in forest growth in our country under the most favorable conditions. The lesson from the experience of Germany is that conservative forestry is fairly remunerative at least, when the price of stumpage increases steadily. At present the most all-around valuable timber species in Saxony is the spruce. There is practically an unlimited demand for this wood in the rapidly developing local industries. The spruce is raised in a rotation of 80 years. Clear cutting is practised and the succeeding crops are started by transplanting seedlings from the nurseries. The expense of planting (outplanting) averages about $10 per acre. The Saxon forester, instead of concentrating his logging operations and the subsequent replantings in one place, has a large number of cutting series: that is, he removes a small strip of the oldest trees in each of a large number of places at short intervals of time. Although this increases the cost of logging, the advantages are more than balanced by a lessened loss by windfall in the older stands, and better conditions in way of shade and moisture, decrease of insect injury etc., for the young plantations. Owing to the short rotation the trees in the Saxon forests are much smaller than are usually seen in Germany. Inasmuch as small timber, saplings and poles, are in great demand, it is found that the smaller sizes are more remunerative investment than the larger trees of a longer rotation.

As an example of a completely rejuvenated forest, the one owned and operated by the city of Heidelberg presents an impressive illustration. A little more than a century ago, this forest, which is on absolute forest or non-agricultural land, was a worthless wilderness. The few straggling trees were decrepit and diseased. The whole forest had been practically ruined, by the combined action of fire, pasturing and reckless cuttings. To-day there are few better or more remunerative forests in Germany. It is an interesting picture, and shows what the art of forestyforestry [sic] can accomplish when based on the principles, and operated by the methods, of science. There was one feature of this forest that presented a peculiarly interesting, not to say fascinating, picture