Records and Care of Plantations in Foreign Countries 



57 



made the first scientific German working 

 plans, they are now revising these plans 

 in entirety in order to develop a more 

 economic road system. Consciously or un- 

 consciously German protection is about 

 summarized in the one word Roads. 



Plantations are universally protected 

 against man. These are the only woods 

 that the tourist is not allowed to enter. 

 Everywhere is the sign 'walking forbid- 

 den.' 



Protection from erosion is provided for 

 in plantations on steep hillsides by ter- 

 races. These may be only a single or 

 double furrow made with a plow or the 

 more elaborate terraces of the French re- 

 foresting work. 



In the shore plantations generally wind- 

 breaks are erected or grasses planted until 

 the trees are well started. In the Rhine 

 valley small cutting areas guard against 

 the drifting sand. 



Sufficient shade for plantations is pro- 

 vided for in the manner of cutting. This 

 maj' be the strip system, a strip of planta- 

 tion alternating with a strip of highwood 

 or in groups of various sizes adapted to 

 the species planted. One form of light 

 protection was most interesting to us here 

 in Pennsylvania. This was in the trans- 

 formation of coppice into highforest. In 

 this all the stump sprouts but one were 

 cut and the one left was the strongest. 

 This one sprout absorbs the whole energy 

 of the stump to prevent more suckers 

 and at the same time protects the planta- 

 tion. After the plantation is once estab- 

 lished these single sprouts are cut out. 

 This method proved far superior to clear 

 cutting where the sprouts must be cut 

 back once or twice at an expense equalling 

 the first cost of the plantation. This 

 method is especially to be recommended 

 in frosty situations with species sensitive 

 to late or early frosts. 



Protection against wild animals provec 

 a considerable source of expense, due es- 

 pecially to their hunting laws and game 

 protection. Against the deer fencing, 

 either wooden or wire, is used. In spruce 

 plantations the terminal shoots of every 

 tree are tarred in some sections. White 

 pine seedlings at Brettan were bound 

 with lead strips to prevent barking by ro- 

 dents. 



Protection against insects and fungi is 

 too large a subject to speak of specifi- 

 cally. There is a careful watch kept for 

 the diseased tree and it is removed at once 

 and precautions taken where an epidemic 

 is feared. Whole plantations are some- 

 times sprayed with Bordeau mixture 

 where shedding disease of the Scotch ])ine 

 is present. Careful watch is kept in spruce 

 and pine plantations for the honey fungus, 

 etc. Plantations are left sheltered for five 

 years before the adjoining overwood is 

 cut out. It is claimed that after a five 



year interval the usual crop of 'children's 

 diseases' has been run through with and 

 an adjoining plantation will not be in- 

 fected. 



But the one measure that is claimed 

 to be most effective for protection is bird 

 protection. Birds are offered every induce- 

 ment to remain in the woods as bird 

 houses, concrete watering and bathing 

 tubs, feed huts for winter, feed when the 

 snow makes their living precarious, etc. 



MR. T. W. DWIGHT, B. Sc.F. 

 Assistant Director of Forestry. 



DURABILITY OF TIES. 



Tho average life of untreated ties as re- 

 ported by the steam roads is as follows: 

 cedar, nine years; tamarack, eight years; 

 hemlock, seven years; Douglas fir, seven 

 years; jack pine, six years; spruce, six years. 

 As recent statistics bear evidence, cedar is 

 the species principally used, because of its 

 durability, but the supply of cedar is rapidly 

 becoming exhausted. Unless preservative 

 treatment of ties is introduced, the short- 

 lived sjiecies will have to be used untreated, 

 which, on account of the necessary frequent 

 renewal, will increase the cost of mileage 

 maintenance. If treated ties were used, 

 which would cost thirty cents extra per tie 

 for creosoting and equipping with tie plates, 

 the inferior species, which are very plenti- 

 ful and cheap in Canada, could be uf-ed with 

 economy. With sjich a treatment these 

 woods would last at least fifteen years, and 

 if protected from wear would probably last 

 much longer. 



