Forest Planting in Southern Michigan' 



BY L. J. YOUNG, 

 Associate Professor of Forestry, University of Michigan 



The text of this paper is hardly so broad as its subject, since it is 

 confined to the planting done by the Forestry Department of the 

 University of Michigan in the vicinity of Ann Arbor. 



Plantations were started within a year after the establishment of 

 the department to increase the facilities for instruction, to afford 

 opportunities for research later on and to serve as demonstration areas 

 to the public. Since the university is located in a strictly hardwood 

 region, the only way in which readily accessible stands of conifers 

 could be had was by planting, so this sort of work was pressed rapidly 

 during the early years. Hardwoods, however, have not been neglected 

 but have received equally as much attention as the conifers. 



In addition to lands owned by the university, much larger areas, 

 belonging to the local power company, have been restocked with a 

 variety of species. 



Sowing methods have been employed only with a few of the nut 

 trees and not even atttempted with conifers, since all early experi- 

 ments along this line resulted in absolute failure. 



The climate of this locality is not one that is conducive to an easy 

 life for the young forest tree of any species when set out in the open 

 amid unnatural surroundings. A mean annual precipitation of twenty- 

 eight inches furnishes no great margin of safety, and when combined 

 with an erratic distribution, that margin becomes still less. There is 

 a tendency toward dry and rather hot summers. Little droughs of 

 two or three weeks that are apt to come in May and early June are 

 often especially provoking. In 1917, for example, there was no rain 

 worthy of the name from the completion of planting in the middle of 

 April until late in September. Long and severe winters occur every 

 two or three years, often without a great deal of snow, so that the 

 soil is frozen deeply. The change from winter to spring is usually 

 a prolonged process with much alteration of cold nights and warm 



1 Read before the annual meeting of the Society of American Foresters, at 

 New York, N. Y., December 20, 1919. 



