336 PLANTS AND MAN 



While artificial reproduction in the form of seeding a poten- 

 tial forest area is sometimes practiced, the planting of two or 

 three year old nursery grown stock is much more reliable, even 

 though considerably more expensive. In the latter method, the 

 young trees are ordinarily planted six feet apart in each direction; 

 thus an acre would contain about twelve hundred trees. A spac- 

 ing of this sort insures early meeting of the crowns or tree tops, 

 with a resultant complete soil protection and an ultimate forest 

 that yields straight, limb free logs. Intermediate thinnings will be 

 necessary in the life of such a forest, but these will sometimes 

 yield a profit by producing cord wood, pulp wood, posts, and poles, 

 as well as cause the remaining trees to add a maximum of trunk 

 growth each year. 



If care has been used in selecting tree species well suited to 

 the environment, succeeding generations of forest trees may be 

 secured by methods of natural reproduction. These involve the 

 removing of the mature timber crop in such a way as to favor 

 natural seeding of the area from seed trees left standing in, or 

 adjacent to, the cut-over area. In the case of some hardwood 

 tree species the stumps will give rise to sprouts, known as coppice, 

 if cutting is properly done. Coppice growth is much faster than 

 seedling growth, since root systems of the parent trees are already 

 well established and able to supply soil nutrients abundantly, 

 in addition to containing stored food materials which give the 

 young sprouts vital energy for early growth. Coppice reproduc- 

 tion is often supplemented by seedling reproduction, since 

 ability of the parent stumps to produce successive sprout crops is 

 rather definitely limited. 



There are several advantages of natural reproduction, chief 

 among which is its low cost. Artificial reproduction by planting 

 costs from six to fifteen dollars per acre, while on the other hand 

 natural reproduction involves only the leaving of a few seed 

 trees which represent almost a negligible investment. Thus it is 

 well adapted to remote and inaccessible forest areas where plant- 

 ing is financially impossible until far in the future, when timber 

 will command a much higher price than it does today. A natu- 

 rally reproduced forest stand is composed of tree species which 

 have been successful in meeting the demands of their particular 



