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Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



studies in the Lake States, Hardy L. 

 Shirley expressed the prevailing phi- 

 losophy regarding broadcast seeding in 

 these words: "There seems to be no 

 more certain way of wasting a large 

 amount of seed and accomplishing 

 nothing than to broadcast it on unpre- 



tion seeded about 2,500 acres in Maine 

 on land burned-over in the fall of 1947. 

 The Department of Lands and Forests 

 of Ontario, Canada, also has been ex- 

 perimenting with airplane seeding. 



The degree of success to follow from 



these experiments remains to be deter- nothing than to broadcast it on 

 mined Preliminary inspections of the pared soil in the Lake States." 

 area seeded in Maine indicate a poor Though Shirley restricted his state- 

 ment to the Lake States, it would have 



catch of seedlings there. Of the other 

 areas mentioned, reports on degree of 

 stocking have been received only for 

 the 1946 seeding in Oregon. On a re- 

 cently burned part of that area which 

 was seeded to Douglas-fir and Port- 

 Orford-cedar (*4 pound of seed of 

 each an acre), examination of 166 4- 

 milacre circular line plots in the fall of 

 1947 showed 52 percent of the plots 

 stocked. Plots of this size (about 14.9 

 feet in diameter) give perhaps an un- 

 duly favorable picture of stocking den- 

 sity. When tallied by milacre plots, the 

 percent of stocked plots on the same 

 area was only 22. Though this amount 

 of seedling catch leaves much to be de- 

 sired, the Oregon investigators feel the 

 results are satisfactory and plan to 

 continue their airplane seeding. 



At this early stage in developments, 

 the ultimate usefulness of the airplane 

 in forest seeding cannot be foretold. 

 Rapid coverage of ground is its chief 

 attraction. Compared to 1, or at best, 2 

 or 3 acres a man-day by hand methods, 

 or even several times those amounts by 

 use of simple machines like garden 

 seeders, the ability of the plane to 

 spread seed on 100 acres in a matter of 

 minutes opens vistas of reforestation 

 that heretofore have been only conser- 

 vationists' dreams. And the cost factor 

 is favorable; present indications are 

 that airplane seeding can be done for 

 from $3 to $6 an acre cheaper than 

 the most efficient hand or simple ma- 

 chine methods. 



The airplane method, however, has 

 several shortcomings, chief of which is 

 that it represents a return to broad- 

 cast seeding a procedure that has 

 been rather thoroughly tried in the past 

 and found wanting. 



In 1937, after extensive seeding 



found ready acceptance among forest- 

 ers had it been broadened to include 

 the entire country. Practically all for- 

 est-seeding experience supported it. In 

 view of this bit of history, what is the 

 outlook for airplane seeding, which is 

 nothing more than the adaptation of a 

 new machine to a discarded method? 



Airplane seeding offers promise of 

 limited successful use because of two 

 developments in the last decade : ( 1 ) 

 A greater appreciation among forest- 

 ers of the importance of proper site 

 selection for direct seeding; and (2) 

 with special reference to the West, the 

 development of practicable methods of 

 rodent control by mass prepoisoning 

 prior to seeding. 



Suitable sites for airplane seeding 

 will be those which, in addition to 

 meeting other requirements, have un- 

 dergone recent denudation, either by 

 large, hot fires or disturbances of the 

 soil. There the seed will find the min- 

 eral soil that many species, especially 

 the conifers, require for effective estab- 

 lishment of seedlings, the young plants 

 will encounter a minimum of compe- 

 tition, and animal population will be 

 at low ebb. The main problem is to get 

 the seeds planted, that is, covered suffi- 

 ciently to promote germination. To ac- 

 complish that, the seed is dispersed in 

 the winter, preferably on soft snow, so 

 that it will become embedded before 

 germination time by the physical action 

 of melting down of the snow, frost 

 movements, and spring rains. As the 

 natural plant cover returns to an area 

 following denudation, the area rapidly 

 declines as a broadcast seeding site. 

 Some measure of ground preparation 

 becomes increasingly necessary, and 

 sooner or later a stage is reached where 



