222 SEEDING AND PLANTING 



are not infrequently from 3 to 6 feet in diameter and spaced at 

 wide intervals, often 30 or more feet distant from each other. 

 Pine and other conifers are sometimes established under an open 

 hardwood stand in this way with the expectation of cutting the 

 hardwoods after the conifers are established. A hundred or more 

 seedlings develop on a single seed spot, many of which are trans- 

 ferred when from 2 to 4 years old to the open spaces between the 

 seed spots. 1 



Large seed spots should be used in preference to small ones in 

 direct seeding on failed places in natural regeneration. Natural 

 regeneration in Austria is often assisted by cutting the weeds and 

 brambles so as to make a better germinating bed on the failed 

 places 2 and by making seed spots about 2 feet square. In the same 

 country the introduction of beech into coniferous plantations is 

 often attained by the formation of seed spots at regular inter- 

 vals, 7 feet long by 2 feet wide, each sown with a handful of 

 nuts. Large seed spots should be used on sites that are very 

 foul or likely to become overgrown with wild growth after seed- 

 ing. When large seed spots are well prepared, their size prevents 

 excessive early competition from the side. 



Large burns, on which the surface vegetation has been more or 

 less completely destroyed, can sometimes be regenerated by seeding 

 in large seed spots on the best soil without previously working it. 

 The seed is scattered on the exposed soil and covered by raking. 

 If more than 8 feet intervenes between the seed spots, it is 

 usually necessary later to shift some of the seedlings to the inter- 

 vening spaces. 



15. SMALL SEED SPOTS. Seed spots are usually made from 

 8 to 12 inches in diameter and spaced at intervals of from 3 to 8 

 feet in each direction. The U. S. Forest Service recommends the 

 following procedure in the formation and seeding of seed spots in 

 District 2: 3 



"A spot 8 to 12 inches in diameter is cleared of sod, weeds or 

 stones so that the soil is exposed. The soil is then worked to a 



1 'This method of regeneration has been successfully practiced in changing 

 culled hardwood stands to white pine in Pennsylvania. 



2 Woolsey, T. S.: A glimpse of Austrian forestry. (Proc. Soc. Am. For., 

 vol. IX, p. 7. 1914.) 



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

 For., vol. VIII, p. 267. 1913.) 



