FOREST TREE PLANTING CAMPS 405 



should be reforested first. It should, however, be remembered that 

 departures from the above rule are permissible, and often commend- 

 able, especially in case of such special projects as the development of 

 protection forests about the headwaters of streams. 



2. The establishment of large plantations. The size of plantations 

 is a subject which has received very little consideration until recently. 

 Heretofore, the small output of nurseries, and the relatively high cost 

 of planting material, and the limited experience in the technique 

 of planting have acted as natural checks on the establishment of large 

 undivided plantations. All the older plantations are consequently 

 small or average in size. During the past decade, however, many forest 

 tree nurseries have been started and developed at such a phenomenal 

 rate that they are now turning out millions of trees annually. The 

 enormous output of these nurseries and the now relatively low cost 

 of planting stock have stimulated the practice of planting to a degree 

 formerly undreamed of. The present wholesale method of planting, 

 as a rule, accomplishes the task at a cost considerably below that of 

 the retail or parcel method of the past. It. however, embodies the 

 questionable tendency of making large undivided plantations. During 

 the past few years six plantations, ranging in size from 379 to 567.9 

 acres and averaging 444 acres, have been established in connection with 

 tree-planting camps on State forests in northern Pennsylvania. A 

 number of questions suggest themselves concerning this tendency. 

 Can such large and undivided plantations be protected as adequately 

 against fire, fungi, insects, wind and other destructive agencies as the 

 same number of trees in smaller and scattered plantations? Do such 

 large plantations form satisfactory units of silvicultural treatment 

 and development? Will they fit into a rational plan of management 

 or will they be cumbersome misfits ? 



The answers to these questions must be based upon empirical 

 knowledge and not upon a priori judgments. American experience, 

 however, does not shed much light upon these questions, because prac- 

 tically all the large plantations have been established so recently that 

 the problems of protection, silviculture, and management, which have 

 been met and in many cases successfully solved, contain few, if any, 

 practical suggestions concerning the rational development and ulti- 

 mate outcome of older stands. European experience in this particular 

 field of inquiry, on the other hand, extends over a long period of time 



