Yellow Birch and the Adirondack Forest 29 
PLANTING on CuTovrerR Lanp 
The discussion thus far has tended to define the types of the 
Adirondacks and the conditions created by logging operations. 
‘ Because of the need of softwood to supply the established indus- 
tries, production of the maximum amount of softwood consistent 
with good forest economy is a principle of management in this 
region. Observation of the general tendency of cutover lands 
to increase their percentage of hardwood led to an examination 
of plantations to determine their success. 
The oldest of plantations within the region studied is about 
twenty years, placed largely on open or burned over land. Such 
plantations have demonstrated their success in many instances 
and covering a wide range of species. The difficulty presented 
is that of getting cutover land free from slash, bushes, and hard- 
wood young growth without running fire over the land first. 
No single instance could be found where clear cut hardwood 
land had been planted without first burning and had lived to 
reach a size suitable to show results. Such a plantation had 
been made along the Tupper Lake-Wawbeek road but was sub- 
sequently burned. The nearest approach to the required condi- 
tion was found near this same road, on an area planted in 1904 
in accordance with experimental plan of the New York State 
College of Forestry. It is located north, of the Tupper Lake- 
Wawbeek road about three-quarters of a mile west of Wawbeek, 
and behind a shelter belt of uncut timber. The type is hard- 
wood having a small number of spruce in the mixture. The 
soil is glacial boulder till and of good depth except for one ledge 
outcrop. The slope is of medium grade and faces northerly, 
extending down to spruce flat type on the north edge. All of 
the old stand of timber was removed, even to the cordwood, and 
the brush was burned in small piles. Judging from the number 
of fire-scarred stumps, the burning destroyed a large amount of 
potential hardwood reproduction. 
Strips were run at an angle of forty-five degrees to the 
plantation rows, four chains apart, so as to include 5.2 acres of 
measured area. All trees were calipered down to one-half inch, 
D. B. H., in inch classes. 
