REPORT OF THE FOREMAN OF FORESTRY. 249 



extensive planting of timber trees. The soil in which the trees were planted was in 

 many instances poor, and while a number of species appear to succeed almost as well 

 on poor as on good land, yet some kinds require good soil in order to grow them successfully. 

 As to the distance apart at which it is desirable that trees should be planted, those 

 which were put five by five feet apart are making, in most cases, the best trees for 

 timber purposes, as the lower limbs are dying, leaving the trunks clean which will make 

 the wood freer from knots than where planted ten by ten, or ten by five feet apart as at 

 those distances there are, as "yet, few instances where the lower limbs have died. The 

 trees planted five by five feet apart, also make make more growth in height than where 

 wider planting was adopted, but the diameter of the trunk is not so great, The closely 

 planted trees are more protected from storms and there are fewer broken tops and 

 crooked stems. The desirability of close planting is also very apparent in the condition 

 of the surface of the ground where the trees are ten feet apart, which, in a number of 

 cases, still requires cultivation although the trees have been planted for eight years, 

 which is necessary in order to keep sod from forming and checking the growth of the 

 trees, whereas, in most instances where the trees are planted five by five feet apart the 

 surface soil is kept shaded and moist, and sod does not form. As the conditions of soil 

 are difierent in the belts where the trees are planted in clumps of a single species and 

 where the several kinds are mixed together, a fair comparison of these two methods 

 of planting cannot yet be made, but the advantages derived from mixing the leafier 

 sorts of trees with those which are not very leafy, are already apparent. Where thin 

 foliaged trees have been planted five by five feet apart and have had eight years' growth, 

 the sod still forms very readily unless the soil is kept cultivated, thus showing that 

 sufficient shade is not afibrded to prevent the growth of grass and weeds. 



The black walnut {Juglans nigra) does not succeed well on all kinds of soils. Un- 

 fortunately most of that in the forest belts at the Central Experimental Farm is not 

 very suitable for this tree, although in some places they are doing well. Those which 

 were planted in a cold, compact,, light sandy loam are almost at a standstill ; in a 

 warmer light sandy loam with gravel they are doing much better, but not making 

 thoroughly satisfactory growth, while in the mixed belt, where the soil is a rather stiff 

 clay loam, they are doing best. By consulting the table the growth of this tree in these 

 different kinds of soil will be found. 



The white pine (Pinus Strobus) has made very satisfactory growth in the belts. 

 This is due, undoubtedly, in a large measure, to the fact that the soil chosen for this test 

 proved suitable for them, being a warm, light, sandy, loam. On gravelly soil they have 

 also done well. This pine makes a very rapid growth, and young trees planted in the 

 spring of 1889, when 8 to 10 inches high, now average about 15 feet in height, with a 

 diameter one foot from the ground of from 3 to 4 inches. 



The European larch (Larix europaea) is also a very rapid growing tree, and seems 

 to do equally as well on a warm sandy loam ; a cold, compact, light, sandy loam, and a 

 clay loam. The trees, in the plantation in the forest belt growing in a cold compact 

 sandy loam, are now from 19 to 22 feet in height, with a diameter, one foot from the 

 ground, of from 4 to 5 inches. 



The white ash (^Fraxinus americana) planted in 1889 and growing in a black loam 

 have made very rapid growth and are now about 20 feet in height, with a diameter one 

 foot from the ground of 3 inches. The black, green, and red ash, in the same soil, have 

 made slower growth. 



The Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) does well on a clay loam, a gravelly soil, a warm 

 sandy loam, and a cold compact sandy loam. Planted in 1888 on a cold sandy loam 

 when 18 inches high, they are now 16 feet in height, with a diameter one foot from the 

 ground of 4 to 5 inches. 



The canoe birch [Betula papyri/era) planted in 1889 in a light sandy loam soil 

 have made rapid growth and are now from 23 to 26 feet in height and 3 to 5 inches in 

 diameter. The branches of this tree have already died, where the trees are planted five 

 by five feet apart, to a height of 8 feet. 



