oOJ: JOURNAt OF FORESTRY 



owned land and 137,250 were supplied for planting on private proper- 

 ties throughout the State. To date, almost one and one-half million 

 pitch-pine trees have been planted on the State-owned forest land of 

 Pennsylvania. The State forest-tree nursery inventories show a total 

 of 350,000 seedlings now in the nursery beds. On the Greenwood 

 State Forest 12.6 acres were planted in April, 191 1, wnth 2-year seed- 

 lings. At the age of 10 years the trees average 9.6 feet in height and 

 show an establishment of 83 per cent. This tree promises to be of 

 great forestal importance in Pennsylvania on account of its wide nat- 

 ural distribution, modest and recommendable sylvical characteristics, 

 and satisfactory yield. 



Norway spruce has been planted more extensively than any other 

 exotic and with a large measure of success. To date, 4,547,753 trees 

 have been planted on State forests, and 742,260 were supplied for 

 planting on private properties throughout the State. It is the only 

 foreign species which may be regarded as a naturalized member of the 

 forests of the State and it will probably prove a valuable addition. Its 

 principal shortcomings are its extremely slow growth in youth, which 

 causes it to be a rather unsuccessful competitor with the hardwood 

 sprout growth, so common on the planting sites of the State, its suscep- 

 tibility to insect damage, and its liability to be wind-thrown and injury 

 by late frost. 



Insufficient attention has so far been given to the treatment of seed- 

 ing and planting sites both before regeneration is begun and after the 

 seedlings have established themselves satisfactorily. Extensive areas 

 of forest land in certain parts of Pennsylvania are occupied by an in- 

 ferior woody growth. That this undesirable growth should be replaced 

 by satisfactory stands of valuable timber trees cannot be questioned, 

 but the proper method of treatment to be used in accomplishing this 

 recommendable conversion has not yet been developed. A number of 

 experiments, however, have been established during the past decade 

 for the purpose of formulating a practical plan of procedure to over- 

 come this undesirable hardwood growth. An outline of a few of the 

 experiments laid out and the lessons learned therefrom follow : 



FOREST CONVERSION EXPERIMENT I 



An area located on the Mont Alto State Forest and stocked princi- 

 pally with hypermature chestnut and rock oak and a few other species 

 common to the mountain slopes of southern Pennsylvania was lum- 

 bered during 1908 and 1909. In the spring of 1910 the lumbered area 



