THE BIOLOGY OF LODGEPOLE PINE 411 



reflect a certain local character. I feel, then, that our present need 

 is for more analytical treatment of the enormous collection of data 

 which are available from numerous, and in many cases very simple, 

 experiments. Only as we consider these small local experiments as 

 sufficient unto themselves, and refuse to analyze and correlate them, 

 are we in danger of stagnating. 



In going over the data which have been obtained in a number of 

 forestation experiments involving lodgepole pine, I have discovered 

 so many facts of interest, quite apart from the problem of reforesta- 

 tion, that it has seemed to me that these facts told a story in them- 

 selves, and that from them, without any first-hand knowledge of the 

 tree, one might trace almost the complete life history of lodgepole 

 pine. Ordinarily we think of the natural and artificial regeneration 

 of a species as two quite distinct problems, and, so far as I know, 

 the intimate relation between what we call "silvical characteristics" 

 and what we consider to be the principal problems in reforestation, 

 has not been generally recognized. Very recently. Professor Toumey* 

 has brought out this relation in his text-book on the artificial growing 

 of trees. I therefore wish to bring to your attention the desirability 

 of using forestation results in the study of natural reproduction and 

 in the determination of bionomic characteristics. This cannot be done 

 better than by reviewing briefly the nature and results of experiments 

 with lodgepole pine. 



A few years ago we were confronted with the difficult and ex- 

 pensive task of collecting large quantities of the seed of this and other 

 western species for use in reforestation. The problem of doing this 

 at a reasonable cost led immediately to experiments to determine when 

 and where seed was produced in the largest quantities, and how seed 

 could be extracted most readily from lodgepole cones. The seed 

 production studies covered only two stands, from which the crops 

 have now been collected for five consecutive years. Further extension 

 of these studies was prevented by the realization that intensive studies 

 could give us biological data only if extended over a long period, and 

 could hardly solve the immediate problem in a general way. Seed 

 extraction studies were carried on, at first, wherever practical opera- 

 tions were under way. The difficulty of fully controlling conditions 

 in large kilns, however, soon led to the abandonment of this method, 



^ Tourney, James W., "Seeding and Planting in the Practice of Forestry." New 

 York, 1916, pp. 476. 



