Hundert Jahre Heideaufforstung im ehemaligen Forstgut Lopau/Lueneburger Heide

1996

Unselbständiges Werk

4354

200039567

The paper deals with a historical study of afforestations in the Luneburgian Heath/North Germany. In the end of the 19th century, about 1 million hectares of heathland and devastated areas still existed. A German agriculturist and engineer, Richard Toepffer, who spent a long time since 1862 in John Fowler's steam plough enterprise in London and became his copartner, bougth in 1895 about 625ha of extremely devastated heathland, in order ot demonstrate the usefulness of steam plough soil tillage for afforestations. In the later 19th century, Fowler's steam ploughs, developed first for cultivations in the Scottish Highlands, proved to be the best on the market. With this new technical equipment, it became possible to work deep enough to break tough podsol B-horizons, which had developed over centuries. Adding also fertilizers, the plantations of Toepffers property soon became the best ones in Northern Germany. The new machinery really was a breakthrough in heathland cultivations and was the beginning of thousands of hectares of afforestations. The paper deals with the different methods of soil tillage, fertilizer combinations, species choice and mixtures and the results of the Toepffer experiment, encouraging many other activities in heathland afforestations.