10 REFORESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION. 



The policy of the Forest Service in artificial reforestation on the 

 National Forests is, first, to conduct experiments to find out what 

 can be done and what is the best way to do it ; second, to reforest by 

 direct seeding wherever this is feasible; and, third, to plant nursery 

 seedlings where direct seeding is too uncertain. In selecting sites 

 for artificial reforestation preference is usually given in the follow- 

 ing order : First, watersheds of streams important for irrigation and 

 municipal water supply; second, lands which produce heavy stands 

 of quick-growing trees; third, lands suitable for the production of 

 especially valuable species, and where conditions are favorable for 

 improving the character of the forest ; fourth, sites which offer good 

 opportunities for object lessons to the public in the practice of for- 

 estry ; fifth, denuded lands which have no special claim for attention, 

 except that they will grow some kind of trees. 



Some areas offer combinations of advantages. For instance, a 

 burned-over tract may be suitable for sowing to some rapid-growing 

 species which is also valuable for timber, and may be so situated that 

 it will serve as an object lesson as well. It is upon such areas in 

 general that reforestation is being concentrated. 



In the work more attention should be given to mountain forests of 

 spruce, fir, and lodgepole pine than to the lower arid more open for- 

 ests of yellow pine, because yellow pine is not as valuable for pro- 

 tective purposes as some of the other species, nor does it yield so 

 heavily per acre. Moreover, the yellow-pine belt usually occupies the 

 lower, drier portions of the mountains, where conditions are compara- 

 tively unfavorable for sowing or planting. Reforestation should be 

 undertaken on a much larger scale in the Northwest than elsewhere, 

 because conditions are favorable not only for reestablishing forests 

 where they have been destroyed, but also for rapid growth after 

 they are established. A given amount of money will reforest a larger 

 area in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho than in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and the resulting forest will produce valuable timber more 

 quickly. 



That under certain conditions it is highly profitable to reforest 

 waste lands in the National Forests is not to be questioned. In cal- 

 culating returns through a long period of years, however, as it is 

 necessary to do in forestry, several unknown quantities enter, which 

 at the present time can only be estimated. The chief of these is 

 stumpage values; that is, what prices can be obtained for timber in 

 50, 60, or TO years, when it is ready to be cut. From present indi- 

 cations and the records of past years it is safe to assume that as 

 long as timber prices rise stumpage prices are certain to increase, 

 and that after timber prices have reached their maximum stumpage 

 will continue to increase up to the cost of production, the lumberman 



