GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 77 



1. THE CHOICE BETWEEN NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

 REGENERATION 



In deciding between natural and artificial regeneration the prac- 

 titioner must depend upon the circumstances surrounding each 

 case. Only a careful consideration of all the local conditions 

 will determine which method is preferable. On open sites where 

 a change of species is necessary and where the soil conditions are 

 unfavorable to natural regeneration, no choice can be made. On 

 the other hand, where trees are already on or adjacent to the 

 area to be regenerated a choice between the two methods can be 

 made. 



Throughout Europe natural restocking was the main method 

 of reproduction until the beginning of the 19th century. Arti- 

 ficial methods were employed only to repair failed places or to 

 seed or plant waste places. 1 Seeding and planting in the United 

 States have been confined chiefly to the forestation of non-tim- 

 bered areas such as idle farm lands, extensive burns, natural grass 

 lands and other sites where there was no possibility of reproduc- 

 tion from natural seeding. We have as yet scarcely begun the 

 filling in of failed places in natural regeneration by seeding and 

 planting. 



With the introduction of more intensive forestry methods in 

 Europe during the last century artificial regeneration was resorted 

 to more and more, and efforts to attain natural regeneration were 

 often neglected. At first artificial regeneration was attained almost 

 entirely by direct seeding, using large quantities of seed on unpre- 

 pared soil. The uncertain results led to planting, at first wild 

 stock from the woods and later stock grown in nurseries. Cotta, 

 Heyer, and Hartig all used wild stock. Pfeil was the first advo- 

 cate of growing coniferous stock in large forest nurseries, dis- 

 pensing with natural reproduction and artificially reproducing the 

 stand by planting. 



It is interesting to note that during the past decade direct 

 seeding on unprepared soil has been extensively practiced in the 

 United States, much less seed per acre being sown, however, than 

 in the former practice in Europe. The results have been equally 

 disastrous. Greeley 2 states: 



1 Fernow, B. E.: History of forestry, p. 106. Toronto, 1911. 

 z Greeley, W. B.: Reforestation on the national forests. (Proc. Soc. Am. 

 For., vol. VIII, p. 266. 1913.) 



