FIRST SEASON'S GROWTH AND MORTALITY OF WHITE- 

 PINE AND RED-PINE PLANTATIONS 



By Cedric H. Guise 

 Department of Forestry, Cornell University 



The principal aims of this study were to find the relative rates of 

 height growth and root development and the mortality, during the first 

 season of planting, with various grades of red-pine and white-pine nur- 

 sery stock ; and, furthermore, to ascertain the immediate effect of tem- 

 perature and rainfall on growth and mortality. 



The greater part of the work was conducted at the Behrends Farm, 

 an experimental area of the Department of Forestry, New York State 

 College of Agriculture, at Cornell University. Each experimental plot 

 is lOO feet square. 



Another excellent opportunity for studying mortality in actual planta- 

 tions of red pine and white pine was available in the plantations made 

 by the Department of Forestry on the slopes of a proposed reser\^oir 

 site of the University, near Varna, New York. Counts were made in 

 these plantations and the results incorporated in this article. 



HEIGHT GROWTH AND ROOT DEVELOPMENT 



Planting Site 



The experimental plots all lie on a flat bench surrounded by low, 

 rolling hills. At the time of planting these were covered with a layer 

 of sod from three to five inches thick. There was no other ground 

 cover nor underbrush. The soil is a Dunkirk gravelly loam, dark brown 

 in color, with stones and pebbles of all sizes, but generally less than 

 three inches in diameter, freely interspersed. It is well drained and 

 easily worked. 



Stock 



The stock used in planting was of two species — white pine and red 

 pine. Both three-year and four-year transplants of white pine were 

 used, but only three-year transplants of red pine. All of this stock 

 came from the forest nursery of the Department of Forestry, and in 

 every case had been in seed beds for two years before transplanting. 

 308 



