FOREST PLANTING IN EASTERN NEBRASIvA. 



119 



plant trees primarily with a view of raising wood crops, and to this 

 end only the better and more profitable species should be used. It is 

 easily possible to secure all the advantages of shelter and ornament and 

 at the same time derive a revenue from the forest plantation. 



A SURVEY OF EXISTING PLANTATIONS. 



The plantations here given are fairly well distributed over the region 

 of this report. In but few cases were two groves of the same species 

 measured in the same locality. The study was not confined to the best 

 plantations only. Those groves of a given species which were typical 

 of actual conditions at the present time were selected and measured. 

 With Cottonwood, for example, the study includes both fairly good and 

 rather poor plantations, growing under widely aifferent conditions of 

 soil, moisture, and management. 



The contents of any given plantation were determined by measuring 

 a representative portion of it, called a sample plot, seldom less than 

 one-tenth of the total area of the grove, often much more, and when 

 the grove contained an acre or less, the entire area was measured. The 

 sample plot in each case was selected to represent average conditions of 

 the plantation. All trees on the sample plot were then calipered, and 

 classified as dominant, intermediate, and overtopped. An average or 

 sample tree for each class was then selected, felled, and analyzed. The 

 stem was cut into 7-foot lengths down to 1 inch, and the branch wood 

 into 4-foot lengths down to 2 inches in diameter. Frequently nearly all 

 the trees would class as dominant, and the cutting of one sample tree 

 would be sufficient to determine the total contents of the plot, disregarding 

 the few trees that might fall in some other class. Care was taken in 

 each case, however, to select enough trees to determine accurately the 

 total volume of the plot. 



The volume of each sample tree, including the stump, stem, and 

 branch wood, was computed fiirst in cubic feet. Adding the volume of 

 the group of trees on each sample plot, the total contents of the plot were 

 obtained, and from this the total volume of the grove could be reckoned. 

 In all cases the results were reduced to the unit of 1 acre. The volume 

 in cubic feet was reduced to cords by using the factor 0.86 as the divisor. 



Table 1. — Comparative height of the principal species for planting in 



eastern Nebraska. 



