NOTES AND COMMENTS 



"Minnesota Experiment" 



It would be of interest to the profession in general to know of the 

 success or lack of success and causes for either of the so-called "Min^ 

 nesota Experiment" of brush disposal and natural regeneration by 

 seed-tree method in the Cass Lake National Forest. 



The system was inaugurated in 1903, when the pine on the former 

 Indian reservation was sold by the Government under the provision 

 that 5 per cent of the stand was to be left for seed trees, which per- 

 centage was increased to 10 per cent in 1908. 



We commented favorably on the proposition in Forestry Quarterly. 

 Vol. Ill, pp. 105-113. Private information reaches us to the effect 

 that, as was to be expected, the system worked both successfully and 

 unsuccessfully according to conditions. "Wherever the cutting has 

 worked in conjunction with nature — that is, during the proper seed 

 years — it has been very successful. However, the cutting occurred 

 every year, and good seed years occur only, say, every four to.siJi 

 years, and during the intervening years the brush, grass, and other 

 ground cover grows up luxuriantly. The litter accumulates, and by 

 the time the trees produce seed there is such an abundance of ground 

 cover that it precludes all chance of the seed reaching the mineral soil 

 and germinating. 



"Hence there are areas that have been restocked satisfactorily • but 

 there are other places where the statutory law has compelled cutting 

 against the wish and desire of every Forest officer, and undoubtedly 

 the opposite of good silvicultural practice, and those areas are still in 

 an unforested condition." 



While the seed-tree method has not proved entirely successful on 

 the Minnesota National Forest, it should not be condemned. There is 

 no doubt but what it would prove satisfactory if properly apjilied. 



More About Sites '^:' 



In the last number of the Proceedings of the Society of American 

 Foresters a note on "What About Sites?" (page 441) mentioned the 

 need of further field studies to determine whether or not we really have 

 the equivalents of Sites IV and V in this country. The note also stated 

 that "conditions in Saratoga County, New York, and adjacent portions 

 of the upper Hudson and Mohawk sand plains show white pine grow- 

 ing on sites which would certainly be classified as IV or V in Europe.". 



929 



