In addition to the restrictive measures and attempts at mere
conservative lumbering without much thought of reproduction, there were
as early as the 16th century silvicultural methods applied to secure or
foster reproduction.
Owing to differences in local conditions and difference in necessities,
this development varied greatly in various sections as to the time it
took place. The Western and Middle country practiced as early as the
16th century what in the Eastern country did not appear until the 18th
century. The forest ordinances, from which we derive our knowledge or
inferences of these conditions, prescribed, to be sure, many things that
probably were not really put into practice.
* * * * *
a. _Natural regeneration_ was at first merely _favored_, without the
adoption of any very positive measures to secure it, namely, by removing
the cut wood within the year, so as to give young growth a chance of
establishing itself, by removing the brush so as not to smother the
young growth, by keeping out cattle from the young growth (Schonung).
If the selection method of lumbering, most generally practiced without
much plan, did not produce any desirable result in reproduction, the
clear cutting which was practiced without system where charcoal
manufacturing or river driving invited to it, did even less so. In
either case, besides the defective and damaged old stubs which were left
in the logging, a poor aftergrowth of undesirable character remained, as
is the case in the American woods on so many areas.
As early as 1524 and 1529, we have record of a conscious attempt to
secure a reproduction by leaving ten to thirty seed trees per acre; but
the result was disappointing, for this practice, being applied to the
shallow-rooted spruce, produced the inevitable result, namely, the seed
trees were thrown by the winds.
This experience led to the prescription (in 1565) in the Palatinate to
leave, besides seed trees, parts of the other stand for protection
against wind damage; later, wind protection was sought by leaving
parcels standing on all four sides, giving rise to a checkerboard
progress of fellings or a _group system_ of reproduction, which by the
middle of the 18th century had developed into the regular _strip
system_, applied in Austria (1766) to fir and spruce, and in Prussia
(1764) to pine. And this marginal seeding method remained for a long
time the favorite method for the _conifers_.
To avoid long strips and distribute the fellings more conveniently, v.
Berlepsch (in Kassel) recommended (in 1760) the cutting in echelons
(curtain method, Kulissenhieb), which insured better seeding, but also
increased danger from windfalls, and was never much practiced, the
disadvantages of the method being shown up especially in the Prussian
Forest Order of 1788.
In the first half of the 18th century it was recognized that the wind
danger would be considerably reduced by making the fellings progress
from East or Northeast to West. The conception of a regular, properly
located felling series was first elaborated in the Harz mountains in
1745 by von Langen, who also accentuated the necessity of preserving a
wind mantle on exposed situations. Both of these propositions reappear
in the Prussian Order of 1780, according to which fellings are to
proceed in a breadth of twenty to thirty-five rods from East to West.
The application of a _nursetree method_ for conifers was proposed in
1787 by v. Burgsdorf (Prussia), a dark position (Dunkelschlag) and a
regeneration period of seven years being advocated.
In broadleaved forest, besides the selection forest, the natural result
of the sprouting capacity of the hardwood had led to a coppice method
which was extensively relied upon for fuel production. This was rarely,
however, a simple _coppice_, for, intentionally or unintentionally, some
seedlings or sprouts would be allowed to grow on, leading to a composite
forest and finally to a regular _coppice with standards_ (1569, etc.),
with an intentional holding over of the valuable oak and ash for
standards. Probably, however, large areas of unconsciously produced
composite forest exhibited sad pictures of branchy overwood with
suppressed underwood of poor sprouts, injured by game and cattle--a
scrubby growth, into which crept softwoods of birch and aspen. Attempts
at _pruning_ such scrub growths into shape on quite an extensive scale
are on record.
The recognition that more wood per acre could be secured by lengthening
the rotation of the coppice, which seems to have been mostly twelve
years or less, led to twenty and thirty year turns and finally to fifty,
sixty and even eighty year rotations or so-called _polewood management_
(Brunswick, 1745), also called _Hochwald_ (high forest).
A full description and working plan for such a forest to be managed in
eighty year rotation, the city forest of Mainz in the Odenwald and
Spessart mountains, dates from 1773, and this polewood forest management
became quite general after the middle of the 18th century, but in the
last half of the 19th century it was generally replaced by the true high
forest management under nursetrees, the experiences with the natural
reproduction of conifer forest having proved the advantages of this
method.
The primitive beginnings of this so-called _Femelschlag_ method
(Compartment selection or shelterwood method) are found, in 1720, in
Hesse Darmstadt, where Oberforstmeister von Minnigerode prescribed
regular fellings progressing from north to south, in which all material
down to polewood size (in selection or virgin forest) was to be removed,
excepting only a number of clean boles, one every ten to twelve paces
being left for seed and nursetrees. The good results in reproduction
stimulated owners of adjoining estates to imitate the method (1737).
The observation that in beech forest the young crop needed protection
and succeeded better when gradually freed from the shade of the seed
trees, especially on south and west aspects where drought, frost and
weeds are apt to injure it on sudden exposure, led to the elaboration of
the principle of _successive fellings_.
In the ordinance of Hanau, as early as 1736, three grades of fellings
were developed, the cutting for seed, the cutting for light, which was
to begin when the young crop was knee-high, and the removal cutting when
the crop was high.
This method spread rapidly and was further developed by the addition (in
1767) of a preparatory cutting, to secure a desirable seedbed, and by
lengthening the period of regeneration and elaborating other detail, so
that, by 1790, the principles of natural regeneration under nursetrees
for beech forest were fully developed in Western Germany.
In other parts, hardwood forest management was but little developed. The
Prussian Forest Ordinance of 1786 contented itself with forbidding the
selection method, by declaring natural regeneration, as practiced in the
pineries, not applicable; while the Austrian Ordinance of 1786
recognizes only clearing followed by planting as the general rule.
* * * * *
b. _Artificial Reforestation._ Although sporadic attempts at sowing and
planting are on record as early as the beginning of the 14th century,
extensive artificial reforestation did not begin until the middle of the
18th century, by which time planting methods were quite fully developed.
Among the hardwoods, the _oak_ was the first to receive special
attention. By the middle of the 16th century the forest ordinances gave
quite explicit instructions for planting oak in the so-called
_Hutewald_, a combination of pasture and tree growth such as is found
to-day in the bluegrass region of Kentucky; the remnants of these poor
pasture woods with their gnarly oaks have lasted into modern times.
In the forest ordinance of Brunswick (1598) orders are given to plant on
felling areas: “every full farmer shall every year at the proper time
set out ten young oaks, every half farmer five, every farm laborer
three, well taken up with roots (wildlings), and plant them in the
commons or openings at Martini (November) or Mitfasten (Easter) and
cover them with thorn brush” (to protect them against cattle).
About that time it was, indeed, incumbent on every marker to sow
annually five oaks, or plant several young seedlings for every tree cut
and to tend them a few years; and the custom existed in the low
country,--afterwards (1700) introduced by law in Saxony--to plant in
celebration of certain occurrences--a kind of _arborday_--especially to
celebrate the marriage day; in order to be married the bridegroom had to
prove that he had planted a certain number of oaks, which in Prussia
(1719) had to be six, besides six fruit trees. The existence of this
custom, now long forgotten, has given rise in the United States to the
story that this is the method by which the German forest is maintained.
The method of collecting and keeping acorns over winter was well known
in 1579, as is evidenced by the Hohenlohe Forest Ordinance, which
advised fall sowing, but, if that did not prove successful, to prepare
the ground in summer, leave it through the winter and sow in the spring.
While, in earlier times, _sowing_ seems to have had the preference, at a
later period planting was practiced, at first with wildlings, but as
early as 1603 we find mention of oak nurseries.
The Prussian Order of 1720 ordered the foresters to plant oaks in the
openings before Christmas, for which they were to be paid, if the trees
were found alive after three years. The growing and culture of oak also
interested Frederick the Great, who ordered its extension everywhere.
Very explicit and correct rules for growing and transplanting them, and
some to which we would not subscribe, were given in the books of the
18th century. Among the planting methods we find, in 1719 and again in
1776, one similar to the Manteuffel method of planting in mounds.
While oak culture was especially fostered in Northwestern Germany, the
cultivation of _conifers_ first received attention in the southwest, and
in the same manner which was inaugurated by the Nuremberg seed dealer in
1368. A new idea, introduced in the Palatine Forest Ordinance (1565) and
in the Bavarian Forest Ordinance (1568), was the prescription, to soak
the seed before use and sow mixed with sawdust or sand, bringing the
seed under with brush or iron rakes.
Carlowitz (1713) taught well the methods of collecting, extracting and
keeping the seed, and even proposed seed tests. The seedbeds were to be
made as for carrots, dense sowings to be thinned, and the thinnings
transplanted into nursery rows, the seedbeds to be covered with moss and
litter to protect them against heaving; he also discusses the question
of cost. The adaptation of plant material to different sites--conifers
where oaks are not suitable--was also understood (Bavarian Forest
Ordinance, 1683).
As long as the old method of extracting the seed in hot stoves or ovens
prevailed, conifer sowings gave but indifferent results.
In the pine forests of Prussia, during the second half of the 18th
century, the method of sowing the cones on large waste and sand barrens,
where the sun would make them release the seed, was practised, and
before Brémontier had written his celebrated _mémoire sur les dunes_,
sanddunes had been recovered with pine plantations in Germany in the
manner which is still in vogue.
The _planting_ of conifers came into practice much later, and then it
was mostly done with wildlings. Opinions differing as to the value of
sowing or planting, it was erroneously held until the 19th century that
planting was less successful and too costly in comparison with the small
harvest yield, which necessitated cheapness of operations. It was only
towards the end of the 18th century that planting of pine was resorted
to, but merely for repairing fail places in sowings and natural
regeneration, and then with a ball of earth (1779), using a hollow
spade,--a costly method. The cost of a certain plantation made in 1751
is, however, reported as less than $3.00 per M., in 1770 as low as 70
cents per M. To cheapen the operations the labor was exchanged for wood,
pasture or other materials or advantages.
In Prussia, in 1773, all recipients of free wood had to do service in
the cultures; in 1785, every farmer had to furnish a certain amount of
cones or acorns. The method, lately adopted in Russia, came into vogue
in Prussia in 1719, namely, of charging, besides the value of the wood,
a toll to be paid into the planting fund (about 7% of the value). This
method was also imitated elsewhere.
The use of the _Waldfeldbau_ (combined farm and forest culture) was also
inaugurated for the purpose of cheapening the cost of plantations (by v.
Langen in 1744) when the great movement for reforesting wastes and
openings began, the tree seed being sown with the grain either at once
or after farm use for some years.
Regular annual planting budgets (of $50--$100--$200) were inaugurated in
Brunswick by v. Langen in 1745; and in 1781, the Prussian forest
administration had attained to entirely modern planting plans and annual
planting budgets.
It was no wonder that the fear of a timber famine and the apparent
hopelessness of bringing improvement into the existing forest conditions
created anxiety and a desire to plant _rapid growers_, such as birch,
willow, aspen, alder; the planting of the White Birch became so general
in the beginning of the 18th century that a regular betulomania is
recorded corresponding to the incipient catalpomania in the United
States.
At that time, to be sure, firewood was still the main concern, and the
use of these rapid growing species had some justification. But where
birch was mixed in spruce plantations its baneful effects consisting in
whipping off the spruce tips and injuring its neighbors were soon
recognized, and much trouble was experienced in getting rid of the
unwelcome addition.
The _Robinia_, which had been brought from America in 1638, was also one
of the trees recommended in the middle of the 18th century and was much
planted until Hartig pointed out that the expectations from it were
entirely misplaced.
Of course no building material could be expected from these species,
hence the larch, also a rapid grower, was transplanted from the Alps
(1730 in Harz mountains), and its use was extended, as with us, to
conditions for which it was not adapted.
It was principally a desire for novelty and perhaps for better,
especially foreign things, that led to the planting of North American
species in parks during the first half of the 18th century. But,
although F. A. J. von Wangenheim’s very competent writings on the
American forest-flora and on the laws of naturalization (1787)
stimulated interest in that direction, the use of American species for
forest planting was not inaugurated till nearly 100 years later, with
the single exception of the White Pine (_P. strobus_), of which large
numbers were planted.