188 FOREST PLANTING. 



because the materials of the soil on which the former 

 kinds have subsisted were consumed and the deficiency 

 in the soil had not yet been made up by a natural fal- 

 low. The poorer the soil is, and the more unfavorable 

 become other conditions for plant growth, the more 

 difficult is the restoration of denuded mountainous wil- 

 dernesses. In such case there is no other chance left 

 but to make some judicious trials on a small scale, and 

 if they turn out favorably, to act accordingly. 



Planting or Seeding? 



The remarks made in Chapter XIV of Part I regard- 

 ing the question whether we shall seed or plant, were 

 destined to be applied in the aforestation of tracts situ- 

 ated on the plains. However, they hold in general also 

 good for mountain districts; and as plantations are 

 less subject to destructive agencies than seed beds, it is 

 the more advisable to give planting on mountains the 

 preference to seeding, because the peculiar condition of 

 climate, soil and location on mountains impose greater 



ways be enriched in fertilizing ingredients while the reverse holds true 

 in agriculture, and therefore a rotation of crops, which in a successful 

 fann management, appears to be desirable, can be dispensed with in 

 the renovation of forests. As for the observations made in this 

 direction, the natural rotation in forest-growth is ascribed to natural 

 causes, as, for instance, to the distribution of tree seeds by winds, by ani- 

 mals and even by currents of the waters. However this may be, the fact 

 is undeniable that, provided the soil is equally adapted to both foliaged 

 trees and conifers, the latter grow more luxuriantly after the first have 

 disappeared than when followed by their own kind, and vice versa. For 

 the Adirondack forests this question is in a certain respect decided by 

 investigations instituted with old woodmen whose experience, together 

 with that of their ancestors, reaches nearly 150 years back. From these 

 it has appeared that upon the ordinary forest soil 150 years ago, pinus 

 strobus, or white pine, was the governing tree, then followed the 

 spruce and lately, foliaged trees such as oak, beech, maple, ash, birch, 

 blackberry, American elm, alder and poplar with intermixture of the 

 hemlock, seem to become leading trees. 



