NOTES AND COMMENT 



The report made to the Chief Forester of the United States in regard 

 to the progress of investigative work during 1915 indicates the nature 

 of the results which are being secured at the eight expermient stations 

 of the Forest Service. The importance of the work at these stations 

 has now been fully demonstrated, both bj' the solution of many small 

 problems and by the progress which is being made in the investigation 

 of some of the larger and more difficult problems in the management 

 of the forest crop. Field examinations are coming to be more and more 

 supplemented by instrumental and laboratorj^ work, and the distinctive 

 character of the various western National Forests has done much to 

 increase the volume of this work which is now engaging the twenty- 

 seven men who form the collective staff of the eight stations. 



Studies in artificial methods of seed extraction have been continued, 

 and the effect of the source of seed upon the character of the resulting 

 stock has been investigated in Douglas fir. The discovery that seed 

 production is low in young and old trees has thrown light upon the 

 age and number of trees that should be left for the reseeding of lumbered 

 tracts. A study of some 6000 acres formerly planted to young nursery- 

 grown trees in the Pacific northwest has given valuable guidance for 

 future plantings in that region. For the western white and yellow 

 pines seeding is more successful than transplantation, while the opposite 

 is true of western larch. A study of reforestation in old burns of 

 Douglas fir west of the Cascades has shown that only the most severe 

 fires destroy all of the tree seeds in the litter which covered the forest 

 floor. The seed of the western white pine is able to resist injury from 

 fire better than the seeds of any of its associates. After a fire which 

 is not severe enough to destroy all tree seeds the earliest stages of re- 

 forestation in the Cascade region are formed by the same species that 

 constituted the original forest, but by different proportions of them. 

 The study of the effect of a forest cover upon erosion and stream flow 

 has been continued at the Wagon Wheel Gap station, in Colorado, and 

 in a short time one of the watersheds will be denuded, in order to 

 secure a comparison with its former behavior and with the simultane- 

 ous behavior of the watershed remaining in forest. The instrumental 



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