lOO Forestry Quarterly 



Only a few localities with reproduction under ten years 

 old were found. These exceptions are the result of fires and of 

 logging. In both cases the exposure of the mineral soil has 

 furnished a seedbed. Logging has not only the effect of produc- 

 ing seedlings by trampling and skidding, but the removal of the 

 forest cover releases, as it were, long-suppressed seedlings, which 

 at once burst into vigorous growth. 



The Engelmann Spruce nearly always occurs singly. The 

 lyimber Pine, as often as singly, is found in bunches produced 

 by the germination of several seeds from a buried cone. These 

 bunches frequently occur along recent skidways. On certain 

 slopes are found trees at least 20 years old in groups that give 

 the appearance of coppice woods, although, to be sure, none of 

 the conifers of this region are found to be coppice. These groups 

 evidently come from cones buried by soil movement due to 

 gravity or wa.shing, or less probably covered by squirrels. 

 It may be that single seedlings of tender age were wiped out 

 while bunches were able to persist. There is a hint to the planter 

 in the foregoing facts. 



The Engelmann Spruce divides its tap root within the first ten 

 years of its life. A lateral system develops, which is imbedded 

 in the first inch of mineral soil, just beneath the humus. In the 

 most vigorous growers, the length of these lateral roots is equal 

 to the length of top, while bulk of root-system is equal to bulk 

 of top. With decreasing vigor, size of root-system decreases 

 very much faster than size of top. The facts just stated were 

 observed in considerable numbers of Engelmann Spruce, seven 

 and eight years old. The few observable examples of uprooted 

 larger trees indicate that the depth of the root-system is about 

 equal to the basal diameter of the tree, and keeps pace with it. 

 Several large roots, radiating horizontally, form the framework 

 of the system. Red Fir, Limber Pine, and Engelmann Spruce 

 all form shallow root-systems, doubtless due to the thin layer of 

 soil. The last produces the shallowest. Yet there is little or 

 no evidence of windfall, so much dreaded in the spruce forests of 

 Europe, probably because of the open stand. 



By far the greater part of the reproduction on the territory 

 covered is practically even-aged. This throws it into sapling 

 size, though it laps over, on the one hand into seedling, on the 

 other into pole size. The great majority of young Engelmann 

 Spruce are between 35 and 45 years of age. The younger of 



