388 Forestry Quarterly 



12 acres, compactly located, was planted in 1862 in 19 compara- 

 tive parts, namely, by broadcasting, by sowing in furrows and in 

 plats, 5 areas by planting single plants with the spacing of .85 — 

 1.13 — 1.42 — 1.70 — 1.98 m in the square, and a parallel series 

 with bunch planting (3 plants in the bunch) ; 4 areas in rows, 

 single and in bunches, 2.27 X -85 and 3.40 X 1.13m, and two areas 

 by mound planting. The soil was of questionable quality for 

 spruce, rather a pine soil, and this fact enhances the value of the 

 experiment, for the less climate and soil suits a species, the more 

 come all further moments which influence growth to expression. 

 Leaving out the bunch planting which furnished in all respects 

 decidedly inferior results, the comparison at the age of 50 years 

 may be tabulated as follows, the figures being in meter measure. 



Broad 



Number of stems 102,306 



Basal area 48.25 



Diameter 2.5 



Volume 225.4 



Stout wood 102 . 8 



Value product 527 



* A somewhat better site. 



The showing is persuasive. With the decrease of numbers, wider 

 spacing, results improve up to, say, 4 feet spacing. The larger 

 basal area in broadcast seeding shows that by itself this factor is 

 meaningless. The total wood volume reaches its culmination at 

 2^ feet, but the timberwood production at the wider spacing of 

 3^/3 feet. The value product, however, found by multiplying 

 diameter with stoutwood production culminates at 4^ feet, and 

 is two to five times as large in the plantings as in the sowings. 

 Who can doubt the superiority of planting over natural regen- 

 eration? ( !) Up to the fiftieth year at least, on poor soil, a 

 stand of 1700 to 2,000 trees to the acre produces best results. 



All stands had been "moderately" thinned in the fortieth and 

 forty-fifth years. In the product of these thinnings the same 

 items as above tabulated show the same tendency as the remain- 

 ing stands : the broadcast sowing furnished the largest number 

 and basal area ; the widest spacing furnished the largest diame- 

 ters, the largest volume of boles resulted from the spacing of 

 2->4 feet, of stoutwood and value from 4^ feet spacing. In the 

 fiftieth year, when the effect of the method of culture may be 

 said to have been fully demonstrated, a severe thinning was 



