FORESTRY. 165 



believes is capable of supporting tree growth. These large areas 

 are covered with worthless brush, or are bare of vegetation. 

 In many of these places the forests have been swept away by 

 fires. 



The government estimates that at least half of the area can 

 be reforested only through artificial planting. 



The Forest Service of the United States has already begun 

 the work of experimenting by sowing seed on some 20,000 acres 

 annually. 



In 1911 the Forest Service had on hand for this purpose 

 161,401 pounds of seeds. 54,000 pounds were seeds from foreign 

 countries, mostly of European species, suitable for introduction 

 in this country. 



The work of gathering seeds by the Forest Service has 

 therefore become a work of considerable magnitude. .To give 

 an idea of this work it may be stated than on an average a single 

 tree bears no more than 2.5 bushels of cones. Most of the seed- 

 ing has been of the cone bearing varieties, conifers in general and 

 the pines in particular because they grow rapidly and produce 

 good lumber. 



PROBLEM. 



1. It requires one bushel of cones to produce one pound of seed ; 

 if the government is planning to reforest 30,000 acres per year, and 6 

 pounds of seed are sown on an average per acre, what is the number 

 of bushels of seed that will be required to sow this amount annually? 



It is an interesting fact that most of the tremendous amount 

 of work required to furnish the supply is done by squirrels. 

 When cones are abundant squirrels lay by a great store of seeds, 

 much more than they can eat during winter. They are ex- 

 perts at collecting seeds and they make collections of good seeds 

 for they know which cones have the plumpest seeds. Thus with 

 man's help they become a great factor in reforestation of our 

 country. 



The Forest Problem. 



According to the statements of the Department of Agri- 

 culture it is now recognized that taking the world as a whole, 

 wood consumption now exceeds its production. 



