182 Forestry Quarterly. 



same conditions confirmed the findings of the original experi- 

 ment more or less strikingly. 



A series of beds of Fir, the most tolerant of all the European 

 conifers, showed entirely different behavior, the decrease of pro- 

 duction decreasing but slightly or not at all with the degree of 

 shade, but the decrease of moisture in the least shaded produced 

 decreased volume. Beginning with the moss covered bed as 

 100, the beds with wider lath in parenthesis, the series was : 



Volume of yearlings, . . 

 Volume of 3 year olds, 

 Length of 3 year olds, . 



This series shows also that with continued shading the un- 

 favorable influence of shading becomes more pronounced ; while 

 in the first year the most shaded bed still produced 84% of the 

 unshaded, after three years the production had fallen to only 14 

 per cent. The influence on the length was with this highly tol- 

 erant species of small amount. 



The 3 year old firs were transplanted and kept without shade 

 for another 3 years. These showed that having their root system 

 and their assimilating apparatus adapted to the shade conditions, 

 they required years before adapting themselves to the new light 

 conditions. Those densely shaded, after 3 years, had made a 

 length shoot of only 4.3 cm. as compared with 14.7 cm on the 

 part of those who had never been shaded, or only 29 per cent.; 

 and in volume only 9 per cent, of those grown without shade. 

 (A matter for practical consideration for the friends of selection 

 forest — Rev.) 



The effect of continued shading was also observed on the other 

 species, and was of a similar nature. With .75 shade, all except 

 the spruce were shaded out in the second year, and larch even 

 with .66 shade ; for the rest, the denser the shade the smaller 

 the product. Even the spruce, although still showing 24 per cent, 

 of the weight of the plants in the unshaded bed, showed that it 

 would not have survived a third year of shade. 



Other tests under raised screens of varying shading quality led 

 to the same conclusions. 



Interesting is the observation that the firs on the unshaded 

 beds formed rather short branches, while the crowns of the more 

 shaded ones spread out with long branches, evidently trying to 

 secure more light. 



