52 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: MONTHLY BULLETIN 



Trees of rapid growth are of course desirable for planting but 

 it must be remembered that such species as well as those of high 

 commercial value are often indigenous to deep, fertile, moist soils, 

 but on soil-depleted, dry areas may be outgrown by more moderate 

 growers, and which would produce more useful timber and in a 

 shorter time. Thus, cottohwood, silver maple, cherry and catalpa, 

 while making rapid growth on stronger soils would probably fail 

 entirely on the abandoned fields and dry ridge soils of southern 

 Ohio. 



In choosing species for specific sites and soils one should for- 

 get likes and prejudices: first, select those which are best suited 

 to conditions; and, second, those which he thinks will best meet 

 his needs. The first is a prime requisite in establishing a success- 

 ful plantation. 



Mixtures of trees. Mixtures are often desirable in forest 

 plantations but methods have not been sufficiently developed in 

 this country to insure the successful outcome of mixed stands as 

 a general practice. 



Tree species tolerate shade in relative degrees. Certain ones 

 will bear shade or partial shade like the beech, sugar maple, iron- 

 wood, spruce and some species of the fir, and in a lesser degree the 

 basswood, osage orange, white pine and red maple. Other species 

 as cottonwood, tulip poplar, walnut and red pine are extremely 

 intolerant and require full light for development. Tolerant species 

 have heavy-foliaged long crowns, while the intolerant ones have 

 short crowns with relatively light foliage. The tolerance of 

 species has an important bearing on their use in plantations. 

 Intolerant trees, like cottonwood and tulip poplar, lose their side 

 branches quickly as they commence to crowd in plantings and 

 readily prune themselves. On soils inclined to be thin and dry 

 such intolerant or light-demanding species do not mature sat- 

 isfactorily because the open crowns do not shade the ground suffi- 

 ciently or furnish enough leaf litter to create a forest floor and 

 prevent the formation of a sod cover. For light-demanding species 

 as cottonwood, tulip poplar, walnut and cherry, a mixture with the 

 more tolerant sugar maple which maintains a good forest floor is 

 desirable. Mixed plantings, however, tend to make planting diffi- 

 cult alike for forester and layman, and it is better in most cases 

 to establish plantings of a single species in pure stands and to 

 underplant them with a tolerant species at some future time if 

 such practice becomes necessary. In certain instances two differ- 

 ent species may be planted in one or two alternate rows but mix- 



