NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



Forest Planting in the Semi-'arid West 



In the Dry Farming Bulletin, Smith Riley, 

 district forester, makes the following re- 

 port on planting experiments at Akron, Colo., 

 and Bellefourche, S. Dak. : "The Forest Serv- 

 ice is conducting planting experiments at drv 

 farming experiment stations at Akron, Colo., 

 and Bellefourche, S. Dak. The work at 

 Akron is in cooperation with the Colorado 

 Experiment Station and that at Bellefourche 

 in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry. While the agreements for this work 

 were perfected in 1907, the actual work of 

 planting did not begin until the spring of 

 1909. 



"The object of the cooperative experiment 

 work is to increase the knowledge concerning 

 trees suitable for planting in the plains re- 

 gion of South Dakota, Colorado, and other 

 similar localities, to test methods of spacing, 



mixtures, and influence of cultivation on 

 forest plantations ; the ultimate purpose be- 

 ing to serve as an object-lesson to the set- 

 tlers in methods of establishing windbreaks, 

 shelterbelts, and woodlots, and the most de- 

 sirable trees to use for each purpose. 



"The provisions of the agreement in con- 

 nection with this experimental work are that 

 the Forest Service provides plant material 

 and pays for labor necessary in preparing the 

 land and planting the trees and for care and 

 cultivation for a definite period after they 

 are set out. The cooperator with the Forest 

 Service is to furnish the land and the nec- 

 essary supervision to carry out the plans of 

 the experiment. 



"Last spring 3,700 trees were planted at 

 the Akron experiment station, and the fol- 

 lowing table indicates the species and the 

 results obtained : 



Table Showing the Result of Experiment Planting at the Akron Substation, Akron, Colo., igoQ 



"It will be noted from the foregoing table 

 that with the exception of osage orange, Cot- 

 tonwood, black cherry, and Russian wild 

 olive, the results were very satisfactory. The 

 poor results of these species, however, are 

 probably due to the bad condition of the 

 stock when received from the nursery. The 

 trees in this experiment were given as care- 

 ful attention as any of the cultivated crops 

 that were grown at the experiment station. 

 The trees were given two shallow and three 

 deep cultivations and were hoed twice during 

 the season. 



374 



■'This spring approximately 5,400 trees are 

 to be planted in two windbreaks at the 

 Akron experiment station. The trees to be 

 used are the most common hardy varieties 

 of broadleaf species and are honey locust, 

 green ash, white elm, black locust, Russian 

 mulberry, and hackberry. In addition to the 

 windbreak planting, variety tests are to be 

 made with seven different conifers in lots 

 of 100 each, these species being European 

 larch, Austrian, Scotch, jack, and yellow 

 pines, Douglas fir, and Black Hills spruce. 



