REPORT OF THE FORESTER. 



167 



and the projects related to a more complete reforestation of water- 

 sheds from which municipalities obtain their water supplies, the sites 

 used were largely old burns. During the year projects were carried 

 on in such burns in the Douglas-fir region of the Pacific Northwest, 

 in the white-pine region of northern Idaho, and in the Douglas-fir 

 and spruce regions of the central Rocky Mountains. 



The average costs of planting and sowing for the year are fairly 

 representative of the costs of these methods in western National 

 Forest reforestation. The average planting cost was $10.62 per acre 

 and the cost of sowing $4.45 per acre. The total number of trees 

 planted was 6,146,637. The quantity of seed used for sowing, ex- 

 clusive of that used in the nurseries, was 8,288.77 pounds. Western 

 yellow pine, Douglas fir, western white pine, jack pine, and red pine 

 were the most important species planted, comprising 87 per cent of 

 the acreage planted. 



The acreage planted and sowed, by States, is shown in Table 6. 



Table 6. — Planting and sowing by States. 



There is given in Table 7 a list of the forest nurseries maintained 

 by the Service, with their locations and stock on hand July 1, 1916, 

 in seedlings and transplants. The stock on hand in the nurseries at 

 the end of the fiscal year was somewhat larger than that at the close 

 of the year 1916, due in large part to the increased production in 

 the Lake States nurseries and to the Morton Nursery in Nebraska 

 which was established pursuant to a provision in the appropriation 

 act for 1915 in order to extend reforestation work in Nebraska. 

 The latter nursery, designated previously as the Niobrara Nursery, 

 was changed in title during the year to the Morton Nursery in honor 

 of the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, former Secretary of Agriculture. 

 The nursery previously known as the East Tawas Nursery in Michi- 

 gan was designated the Beal Nursery in honor of Dr. Beal, professor 

 of forestry in botany at the Michigan Agricultural College for 40 

 years and the first man to do planting work in that State. The nurs- 

 eries used 3,688.25 pounds of coniferous seed and 33 pounds of hard- 

 wood seed. The average cost to produce the seedlings was $2.63 

 per thousand, and to produce the transplants $5.44 per thousand, 

 decreases of $1.62 per thousand and $0.61 per thousand, respectively, 

 from the 1915 costs. 



