130 Forestry Quarterly. 



and that foresters, out of a desire to meet these public demands, 

 have not infrequently undertaken the difficult and questionable 

 planting projects first. In the execution of such work, faith, 

 hope and enthusiasm are necessary ; but they are poor substitutes 

 for suitable soil, moisture and temperature. Emphasis should be 

 laid upon the fact that reforestation should precede afforestation 

 and that all projects which involve purely afforestation should be 

 considered as experiments until success has been demonstrated. 

 However, I do not mean that there is no latitude at all in this 

 matter, for favorableness is a relative term and there are various 

 degrees from the optimum to the absolutely forbidding sites, and 

 these grade from the one into the other. Then, too, the present 

 distribution of a species is not necessarily an indication of its 

 possible distribution. Drought, grass and stock frequently pre- 

 vent the germination of seed and the natural extension of forests 

 on sites upon which they can doubtless be successfully established 

 by planting. If a species has not been particularly abundant in 

 a certain locality, insects, birds, and rodents may have waged 

 such a war upon successive seed crops that the particular species 

 may in time have become extinct in the locality. Similarly a 

 species suited to a region may be absent in it for geological rea- 

 sons. The writer is of the opinion that Yellow Pine was elimi- 

 nated from the Wasatch Mountains during the glacial age. 

 Hence if one should find a good stand of this species upon a 

 certain site, say in Colorado, and should upon investigation, find 

 identical sites elsewhere without tree growth, it should be natural 

 to suppose that that species could be safely introduced in the 

 latter case and with equal or better results. If nursery practice 

 can be taken as a criterion, the experience in growing this species 

 at the Wasatch Planting Station is worthy of note. Here, at an 

 elevation of 7,430 feet, it is particularly hardy and can be grown 

 from seed, without irrigation, shade, mulching or "damping off." 

 When transplanted at the age of one year, 95% of the plants live 

 and thrive. Were ecology, the adaptation of species to sites, an 

 exact science, it would only be necessary for the forester to study 

 sites and requirements of species and to make the proper adjust- 

 ments. In this way it might prove that the range of the native 

 species could be extended and that valuable exotics are suited to 

 sites which are not naturally timbered. The more one knows of 

 the principles of ecology, the less he needs to rely upon blind ex- 



