Reforesting Cut-Over Chestnut Lands. 205 



stump were recorded, along with the age and number of the 

 sprouts coming from it and their apparent present condition. 

 In the case of the chestnut, the age, number and size of the dead 

 sprouts and the number and size of the sprouts infected with 

 the disease, but still alive, were also recorded. The number of 

 seedlings of each species was noted down, and with it their 

 height and growth, and in each case where dead sprouts or 

 seedlings were found, the cause of such death was ascertained 

 and noted where possible. Notes on the rock, soil, subsoil, 

 humus, slope and exposure to wind, sun, snow and rain, com- 

 pleted the sheet for each plot. When a sufficient number of 

 plots had been taken the results were tabulated and studied and 

 a good idea of the actual conditions existing on such cut-over 

 lands was obtained. 



To make more valuable the results of the study, a brief de- 

 scription of the local conditions influencing forest growth should 

 be given : 



The forest land on which the study was made is located in 

 Somerset County, New Jersey, on the extreme Southern boundary 

 of the geological region known as "The Highlands." The rock 

 is entirely composed of granite gneiss of the Archean period. 

 The region is a few miles south of the limit of glaciation and the 

 soils are to a large extent residual, having been derived from the 

 rock upon which they now lie. These soils are almost wholly of 

 a silty loam in texture, containing a slightly lower percentage of 

 silt than silt loam, and, as the subsoil is of the same material 

 and the depth of the bedrock below the surface is fairly great, 

 the drainage is very good. In fact this porosity of the subsoil 

 tends to aid droughts too much during the severe heat of sum- 

 mer. The soil is very thickly intermingled with pieces of gneiss, 

 varying in size from masses weighing several tons to small ir- 

 regular stones, the usual size being about as large as a saucer. 

 On the hilltops these rock fragments are so numerous as to 

 give an appearance somewhat similar to that found on a talus 

 slope. The average annual rainfall is about 45" and is well dis- 

 tributed throughout the year. The average temperature for the 

 year is 49° F. The topography of the country is that of a group 

 of rounded hills rising from an elevation of 300 feet above sea- 

 level at Bernardsville to about 850 feet on the highest hilltops. 

 The valleys are often deep and the slopes abrupt, but one character- 



