Canadian Forestry Magazine, August-Septeniher, 1920. 



397 



Twenty Years of Forest Tree Planting 



B\; Joseph S. Illick 

 Penns])lvania Department of Forestry 



An inspiring story of what aggres- 

 sive public policies can do in 

 reforesting idle lands 



Editor's Note. — Realizing the deep in- 

 terest all over Canada in the project of 

 replanting- with timber trees the en- 

 ormous areas of idle lands and thus 

 turning them to our. economic profit, the 

 Canadian Forestry ^Magazine asked Pro- 

 fessor Joseph S. illick, in charge of tree 

 planting work throughout Pennsylvania, 

 to tell the story of Pennsylvania's suc- 

 cess. 



Readers of the Forestry Magazine 

 will find '\lr. 1 Hick's article, which is 

 generously illustrated, a real contribu- 

 tion to our knowledge of forest tree 

 planting in Canada. 



At least 50 million forest trees have 

 been planted in the State of Pennsyl- 

 vania during the last twenty years. For- 

 est tree planting began in Pennsylvania 

 in 1728, when John Bartram acquired a 

 tract of land near Philadelphia and 

 l)lanted thereon many different kinds of 

 forest trees. Put most of the earl\- 

 planting took ])lace in gardens, groves 

 and i)arks, on estates, by roadsides, and 

 along waterways. 



Tlie real advent of forest tree plant- 

 ing for forestry ])urposes, however, th'd 

 not begin until 1899 — two years after 

 the State began to acquire land for for- 

 estry purposes. Tlie progressive growtli 

 of the ])ractice on the State forests is 

 shown in the following table: 



Xumber of Trees 

 I'lanted on 

 Year. State b^orests. 



1890 1.000 



190O 738,461 



1<)10 l.()"J.2L> 



1<)11 l.()().\(«(d 



Vni 1.8'n).4(U 



1913 3,164,637 



1914 3,393,571 



1915 4,315,436 



1916 5,492,020 



1917 3.595,720 



1918 6,033.760 



1919 6,132,547 



Total since 1899 . . 33.806.338 



Abort 50 different species of native 

 and foreign trees have been planted. The 

 latter, a^ a rule, were planted in small 

 number and chiefly for experimental 

 purposes. ihe following table lists all 

 the species, of which more than 50,000 

 trees have been planted: 

 Species. Number of Trees Planted. 



White Pine.. 20,669.172 (61% of total) 

 Norwav Spruce 4,^15,563 

 Scotch' I'ine 2,971.909 

 Pitch Pine.... 1,638,706 



Red Tine 1,058,717 



European Parch 712,592 



The success of forest tree planing on 

 .*^tate I'orests \\a-> hrraldcd wi'lely across 

 the State and )>ri\ate owners of idle 

 foiesl land bc^an to inqnire earnestly 

 about the l\;i>ibibt\ of ref're-ti-^iJ their 



