50-1 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



it succinctly when he writes that "Silviculture is based largely on 

 empiricism, and that its methods vary according to local conditions and 

 judgments. No two foresters may agree on procedure in a given case 

 and yet both may be successful." 



Silviculture embraces more problems, which have not yet been satis- 

 factorily solved, than any other branch of forestry in Pennsylvania, 

 and these problems lie at the very nucleus of rational forestry practice, 

 and form the pivot upon which the whole forestry business turns. It 

 would not be possible to enumerate all the silvicultural problems which 

 are at hand and being worked on in Pennsylvania, much less could they 

 be discussed in a single paper. Therefore, special phases of selected 

 problems will be considered i nthe spirit of creating constructive discus- 

 sion and promoting supplementary and supporting investigations. 



Some of the most important silvicultural problems pertain to the 

 planting of forest trees. Planting on the State forests began in 1899, 

 when 1,000 trees were set out. During the first five years of this ex- 

 perimental and investigative efTort only 16,800 trees were planted. The 

 experiment soon grew into an established practice, for in the next five 

 years (1905 to 1909, inclusive) over one million trees were set out. 

 The growth of the practice was prodigious, for in 1910 the planting of 

 forest trees passed the million mark and continued to increase until 

 1918 in which year over 6 million trees were set out. 



The total number of trees planted to date (January 1, 1920) on 

 the State forests is 33,806,338, which comprise the establishment of 

 1,131 separate plantations having an aggregate area of 22,168 acres. 

 The establishment of so many plantations and the planting of so large 

 a number of native and foreign trees made possible the outlining and 

 pursuit of many interesting and original studies, of which some of the 

 most important are : 



1. Can plantations 'be established successfully? 



2. Is fall planting of forest trees recommendable ? 



3. Can plantations be established economically? 



4. Are plantations reasonably safe from fire? 



5. Should planting of forest trees by private owners of forest land 



be encouraged? 



CAN PLANTATIONS BE ESTABLISHED SUCCESSFULLY? 



Whether or not plantations could be established successfully was a 

 real and vital problem in the early days of the planting effort. In the 



