VEGETATION MANAGEMENT — EGLER 307 



not adequately soaked, the sprouts may survive and require respraying 

 when they become larger. Sometimes they will die of their own 

 accord, either in the second or third year. Very frequently such re- 

 sprouts will appear after complete dormancy through one entire grow- 

 ing season. They have been observed to die without further spraying, 

 either from continued effects of the cliemical or secondary fungal' 

 decay. Needless to saj^, these delayed effects and aftereffects, both 

 for basal spraying and foliage spraying, make any rational compari- 

 son of the two systems a matter involving several years, even though 

 the bulk of the industry and trade literature gives glowing descrip- 

 tions of situations one year after treatment. 



From the standpoint of spraying, all woody species may be segre- 

 gated into the stumpsprouters (sprouting from the base of the original" 

 stump) and the rootsucherers (sprouting from the roots, at some dis- 

 tance from tlie treated stump). The stumpsprouters, including the 

 maples, almost all the oaks, and numerous others, offer relatively few 

 problems, if the crown collar can be soaked. The basswoods are prob- 

 ably the most resistant, with completely green foliage even two seasons 

 after spraying. Nevertheless, in some of these instances the basal cam- 

 bium was found to be entirely dead, and it is believed that such indi- 

 viduals will die from root starvation. The ashes, especially white ash, 

 are also unusually resistant, but heavy applications seem to be 

 effective. 



The rootsuckerers give the most trouble, and this very fact indicates 

 that the chemical or its effect doe^ not readily pass into the roots. 

 Kill-to-ground is easily obtained both by basal and by foliage spray- 

 ing, but the resprouting may result in a greater number of stems per 

 unit area than before the spraying. The species here involved are' 

 blackberry, sassafras, black locust, tree of heaven, and trembling 

 aspen, as well as the sumacs. Since these are all species of abandoned 

 agricultiu'al lands, the}^ can be locally predominant and demand radi- 

 cal alterations in any program of vegetation management. Although 

 apparently complete root-kill of staghorn sumac has been observed 

 at the time of this writing (October 1953) from a commercial spray- 

 ing in January 1952, such a situation is anomalous. On the other 

 hand, experiment-station tests on aspen in the Lake States, based on 

 data taken for growing seasons after treatment, indicate that the only 

 treatments in which basal spraying does not result in rootsuckering 

 are those applied in late June, July, and August. These data are in 

 accord with an as yet incompleted experiment on staghorn sumac, also 

 dating from 1950, in Colebrook, Conn. 



Of all the factors involved in successful basal spraying, the most 

 important single variable seems to be that of qualified personnel. Sev- 

 eral skills are involved. Not only must the bark be adequately soaked, 

 but decisions must be made concerning snow depth and rain, which 



