1468 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



this advantage would be gained in having the nursery 

 located at a lower altitude where more vigorous plants 

 could be produced in the longer growing season and the 

 trees be dug and placed upon the planting areas as soon 

 as weather conditions made spring field planting possi- 

 ble. The Monument nursery site was chosen and develop- 

 ed in the spring of 1907 as a result of the two years' ex- 

 perience with the other two small sites. The Monument 

 site has proved satisfactory and is now producing the 

 large amount of yellow pine, Douglas fir and Englemann 

 spruce, and the small amount of limber pine that are now 

 being planted yearly upon Pikes Peak. 



Following the 1905 field planting, further seedlings 

 of Douglas fir were brought from the Halsey nursery in 

 the spring of 1906 and planted in the Bear Creek region 

 with a little better success as the 1907 counts on this 

 small planting showed thirty-five per cent alive. 



In the early operation of this field planting, a study 



L'p to the close of 1917 some 4,575 acres have been 

 planted on the Pike National Forest, for the most part 

 in the Colorado Springs region and in the vicinity of the 

 famous Auto Highway to the top of Pikes Peak. An 

 additional thousand acres are also being reforested in 

 this vicinity this spring (1918). Fully eighty-five per 

 cent of the area which has been artificially planted to 

 pines and spruces can be considered as successfully 

 stocked with trees. Such losses as have occurred are due 

 principally to the planting of Austrian pine, a species 

 which is here out of its habitat, and to the undertaking of 

 planting work in the fall. While fall planting may suc- 

 ceed in regions where there are early and abundant 

 snows, such conditions cannot be depended upon along 

 the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The prin- 

 cipal species planted are yellow pine on the lower foot- 

 hills, which in turn gives way to Douglas fir and Engel- 

 mann spruce on the higher slopes, limber pine being 



l'l..\-\l'KU (-H.D lU'KXK.U-tnKR GUOl'.Xli 



Showing regular rows of planted trees along Pikes Peak Auto Highway— 1912 yellow pine to the right of the road— 1914 yellow pine and Douglas 

 fir to left. This country was burned over from 60 to 65 years ago and in that time very little reproduction has come in. Thousands of tourists 

 motor over this road to the top of Pikes Peak annually. 



was made and a map completed showing the extent of 

 the types which should be planted with the diflferent 

 species of trees which grew originally upon the areas. 

 The first experiments were made at the lower altitudes 

 with yellow pine and Douglas fir. In the more recent 

 years the production of Englemann spruce and limber 

 pine for the high planting types has been taken up. The 

 low percentage of survival in the earlier plantings showed 

 the need of the most vigorous transplants that could be 

 produced, and this was secured in the 2-1 plant, as leav- 

 ing the tree two years in the seed bed gave a plant 

 readily handled in transplanting, while the one year in 

 the transplant bed produced a well developed tree with 

 a clustered root system made up of fine rootlets of much 

 greater area than that of the tree crown or evaporating 

 surface. 



used for windy, exposed regions. The trees are planted 

 8x8 feet or about 700 per acre, and the average cost 

 of planting, including the cost of producing the trees at 

 the nursery, is approximately $11.00 per acre, which is 

 very moderate when we consider the rugged and rocky 

 region in which the reforestation work is being carried 

 on. Generally si)eakiiig, it may be said that the annual 

 survival of trees varies from 60 to 90 per cent, depending 

 upon the condition of the soil and the species planted. 

 \\'hcn planting was first projected there was little 

 public interest or sympathy for the work. The slow 

 growth of the trees and the slight showing each year had 

 much to do with this lack of enthusiasm on the part of 

 the layman. In fact, in the early plantings complaint 

 was made (though scrupulous care was taken to guard 

 against it") that in planting these watersheds the pres- 



