218 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



NATURAL REFORESTATION. 



The methods of management for natural reforestation from seed 

 in vogue on the European continent can be divided into three classes. 

 Their characteristic is that in utilizing the timher care is taken to con- 

 sider tlie requirements of a new growth. The first method is an im- 

 provement on the method of selection of our lumbermen. It is the 

 method most suitable to the conditions of the wood lot of the farmer, 

 who can cut as he pleases, can pay attention to details in the removal 

 of the cut timber, and to the requirements of the groups of young 

 growth. This method is the most conservative in regard to the preser- 

 vation of soil conditions. It is as nearly as possible the forest man- 

 agement of nature, in which trees of different ages and sizes are 

 combined, and for shelter forests is the only advisable plan. It con- 

 sists in taking out the tall timber, either by single individuals or 

 groups, as necessary, for the benefit of the undergrowth. If old, 

 densely foliaged trees, under which an after-growth is only rarely 

 formed, are thus removed, a large opening is made, and the condi- 

 tions become favorable for a good new growth from seed of neigh- 

 boring trees. Under smaller and light-f oliaged timber is often found 

 a worthless after-growth. Here a group of the mother trees must be 

 removed, as well as the worthless after-growth, and planting of shade- 

 enduring kinds resorted to. 



The possibility of sprouting from the stocks in broad-leaved forests 

 will aid in the reforestation and gradually lead to the adoption of the 

 form described before as standard coppice, the most desirable one for 

 the small forest owner. 



_ For the lumberman and large forest operator this method is objec- 

 tionable, in so far as it requires the working over too extended an 

 area, making lumbering expensive, besides attention to detail is not 

 as easily given in large areas. 



Two methods are applicable to such, conditions. 



MANAGEMENT IN ECHELONS. 



This consists in making the clearing in strips, and awaiting the seed- 

 ing of the clearing from the neighboring growth. It is applicable to 

 species with light seeds, which the wind can carry over the area to 

 be seeded, such as larches, firs, spruces, most pines, &c. 



The cuttings are made as much as possible in an oblong shape, 

 with the longest side at right angles to the direction of the prevailing 

 winds. The breadth of the clearing — on which occasional reserves of 

 not too spreading crowns may be left — depends of course on the dis- 

 tance to which the wind can easily carry the seed which is to cover the 

 cleared area. Observation and experience will determine the distance. 

 In Germany, for spruce and pine, this has been found to be twice the 

 height of the tree; for larch, five or six times the height; for fir, not 

 more than one shaft's length. From 300 to 3(J0 feet is perhaps the 

 range over which seeding may be thus expected. One year rarely 

 suffices to cover the cleared area with young growth, and it takes 

 longer in proportion to the breadth of the cutting. This method is 

 very much less certain in its f orestal results than the next named, and 

 more often requires the helping hand of the planter to fill out bare 

 places left uncovered by the natural seeding. But it is the one that 

 seems to interfere least with our present habits of lumbering, and with 

 it eventually the first elements of forestry may be introduced into 

 lumbering operations. 



