454 



Canadian Forestry Magazine, October^ ip20. 



Growing New Crops of White Pine 



On the Harz'ard Forest, experiments iri securing!; a maximum reproduction 

 of ii'hite pine gave this conclusion. 



That the best reproduction imis secured following a heavy thinning, involv- 

 ing the removal of one quarter of the trees per acre. 



Stands so treated have in five years shozvn as many as 25,000 seedlings per 

 acre. At the end of five years the remaining cover wood ivas removed. 



Clear cutting in strips or in patches gave various results, mostly favorable. 

 But zvas open to the objection of higher costs, due to the scatered area. 



With the annual harvest of Canada's 

 premier wood — white pine — steadily 

 decreasing-, as regards what is taken 

 from Crown Lands, our readers will 

 "be interested in studies made on 54 

 separate logging operations in Massa- 

 chusetts and New Hamphire during 

 four years, by R. T. Fisher and E. I. 

 Terry, and published recently in the 

 Journal of Forestry. 



Of the 54 separate areas examined 

 ■only 14 showed satisfactory reproduc- 

 tion of pine. This was taken to mean 

 '500 thrifty seedlings or more per acre. 

 All of these 14 lots were cut in seed 

 years, that is, in the autumn or winter 

 following the fall of seed. Two lots 

 •cut in seed years showed no reproduc- 

 tion, the failure beind due to the fact 

 that the previous stands were unus- 

 ually dense and below the seed-bear- 

 ing age. Of the remaining 40 wood- 

 lots cut over in non-seed years, only 

 10 showed any pine reproductoin at 

 all, and of these 10 only one anything 

 like a sufficient seeding. These par- 

 tially satisfactory results were always 

 explainable on account of accidentally 

 favorable conditions, such as the prox- 

 imity of seed trees and the smallness 

 of the area cut. The examination 

 showed that general site factors such 

 as slope and aspect had little or no 

 effect, but that the condition of the 

 seed-bed was apparently of first im- 

 portance. Heavy ground cover and 

 leaf-litter was unfavorable ; thin leaf- 

 litter and humus Avith mineral soil 

 mixed with it or exposed made the 

 best seed-bed. If seedings failed^ to 

 start within from 2 to 5 years after 

 the cutting, the development of other 

 vegetation kept them out entirely. In- 

 cidentallly the study showed that un- 

 der dense stands no reproduction sur- 

 vives, but that under open or mixed 



stands advance growth of white pine 

 may survive for years. There was no 

 evidence of reproduction from seed 

 stored in the leaf-litter more than one 

 year. Outstanding facts were that 

 on all but the lightest of the local 

 soils, the hardwoods are gaining, and 

 that the composition of the present 

 forest types has been controlled in the 

 main by the previous treatment of the 

 land. 



Taking the total area of the wood- 

 lots examined, about 15 to 20 per cent 

 showed good pine reproduction ; on 

 another 20 per cent pine seedings were 

 scattering. On the other hand from 

 60 to 70 per cent of lots cut both in 

 seed years and non-seed years, was 

 satisfactorily stocked with valuable 

 hardwoods such as red oak, white ash, 

 hard maple, etc. These figures apply 

 only to the first 10 years after cut- 

 ting. However successful the repro- 

 duction may be at the start, within 10 

 years from 10 to 80 per cent of the 



