CHAPTER IX 



SILVICULTURE METHODS OF ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION 

 (REFORESTATION OR TREE PLANTING) * 



1. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 



Tree planting is one of the most important aspects of forestry in 

 the United States, especially in some sections. Reforestation has been 

 actively carried on in Europe for many centuries, to supplement 

 natural reproduction, as explained above, or independently of it. 



The first tree planting in this country took place between 1740 

 and 1750 in Massachusetts, where oak was grown for ship timbers. 

 Later, in 1819, pitch pine was used in the same state; and in 1820, 

 chestnut, oak, hickory, and locust were seeded and planted on 40 acres 

 in Rhode Island. Subsequently considerable planting was done, both 

 of exotic species such as Norway spruce, European larch, and Scotch 

 pine, and of domestic varieties such as white pine, oak, ash, maple, 

 and others. The Timber Culture Act passed by Congress in 1873 

 gave a great forward impetus to tree planting in the treeless plains of 

 the Middle West. 



The first activity in reforestation by the states took place in New 

 York, where extensive reforestation has been carried on. In 1929, the 

 State Reforestation Commission of New York inaugurated a policy of 

 spending $20,000,000 to purchase and plant one million acres of idle 

 and abandoned farmland. There are said to be more than a hundred 

 million acres of potential forest land in need of planting in this coun- 

 try. Until 1905 the federal authorities made very few actual attempts 

 to seed or plant in our National Forests. 



In the latter part of the nineteenth century many railroads en- 

 couraged or actually engaged in tree planting to prevent snowdrifts 

 and to grow fence posts and cross ties along their rights of way. At 

 first, a few so-called ranger nurseries were established in our National 

 Forests, but these generally proved to be failures. Reforestation by 

 direct seeding or planting of trees was also attempted, but that gen- 



* For enlarged description and explanation of this subject see "Seeding and 

 Planting in the Practice of Silviculture," by Tourney and Korstian, John Wiley 

 & Sons, New York, second edition, 1931. 



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