SUMMER PLANTING OF WHITE PINE ON THE MICHIGAN 



STATE FORESTS 



By Russeli. Watson 



In Charge Forest Management, State of Vermont 



Summer planting has been so generally accepted as being infeasible 

 on account of high mortality of the seedlings after planting, that the 

 following information, which is based on experiments conducted on 

 the Higgins Lake State Forest, Michigan, and which indicates that 

 summer planting is feasible under some conditions of growth may be 

 interesting to the profession at large. 



The experiments were initiated primarily to determine whether 

 spring planting on the State Forests, which usually were stopped the 

 first week in June, could not be prolonged for a week or two ; and 

 whether fall planting, which was commenced about the second week 

 in September, could not be started several weeks earlier. To determine 

 this 875 seedlings of white pine (3-0 stock) were planted each week 

 from the first week in June to the first week in September. Planting 

 was done by one of the Forest laborers who worked under no super- 

 vision and with explicit instructions to plant the seedlings with only 

 the same care as he had used in the usual spring and fall planting. 

 Trees were underplanted, that is, planted under a moderately heavy 

 stand of maple and oak about fifteen years old. The 875 seedlings 

 were spaced in such a manner as to cover half an acre, that is, five by 

 five feet. The area planted is in no wise particularly different from 

 the many thousands of acres of land that State Forester Schaaf is 

 underplanting to white pine seedlings every year. The seedlings stock 

 which was planted (not at all selected stock) was considered 3-0 stock 

 June 1, but after the season's growth, say on August L was considered 

 4-0 stock. The season was particularly dry ; even the hardy shrubs, 

 such as huckleberry and sweet fern, were in many places withered from 

 the drought. 



We were confident that, upon examination, we would find a mod- 

 erately heavy mortality rate, somewhat higher than that of regular 

 spring and fall planting in those weeks immediately following spring 

 planting period and preceding fall planting time, but that the areas 



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