Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/600

596 remarkable figures of productiveness will be maintained we can not say. We can say, however, that the German foresters are watching this experiment with lively interest.

ISTo report of German forestry and forests, however brief, could omit to make some mention of the Schwarzwald; one of the most famous fore?ts of southern Germanv, commonly known as the "Black Forest." This is a region of enchantment, the recreation ground of Europe, and the delight of all visitors. Here one comes in contact with new economic conditions, new silvicultural types and new ideas in the utilization of forests. While esthetics and sentiment are coming to play an important rôle, the purely commercial aspect of the production of timber is not overlooked. Not many years ago this was the wilderness of Germany. Destructive forestry, not unlike the past, and for the most part even present, American methods of lumbering, was practised in the Black Forest. I visited the holdings of a forest stock company with an historical record covering more than 300 years. In the early days splash dams were made in the rocky, turbulent streams, and the accessible timber was removed and splashed down to the mills located on the river Rhine. The waste was enormous. Since the advent of the railways conditions have changed. The whole forest is a network of excellent macadam and skidding roads. Destructive forestry has given place first to conservative, and then to constructive forestry. The advance of stumpage prices and the introduction of better forestry methods are rewarded by increased revenue. The net income from some of the holdings of this great forest area is better than that of any other forest that I have had the pleasure of visiting. The regeneration is all by natural seeding, and planting is only practised in case of severe windfalls or necessary clear cutting. The two prevalent types of natural reseeding are what are technically called "shelterwood compartment type" and "selection cutting."

In the first type, the regeneration is carried on over large areas, and the standing seeding and shelter trees are removed gradually during a period of from 40 to 50 years. In the "selection cutting type" the regeneration is in patches and the process of seeding is continuous. That type is selected that is best adapted to the prevailing local conditions. The logging operations in some parts of the Black Forest are unique. On the steep slopes the large logs, scaling from 600 to 1,000 board feet, are let down to the roads by means of a long rope one end of which is wound a few times around a near-by standing tree and then fastened to the large end of the log, by a strong ringed spike. The log is started and the rope is drawn around the tree. The man or men who play out the rope hold it loosely or tightly, according to the weight of the log and the steepness of the descent, and the velocity of the log is under perfect control. The logs are guided past the trees and rocks that may be in their way by woodsmen who are both active and expert in this work.