138 ARTIFICIAL REFORESTATION 



acre. In the Aude the sowing is done with seed spots in the autumn, 

 the spring being generally too rainy and day laborers too difficult to 

 secure. Sixteen hundred to 2,000 seed spots, 12 to 16 inches square and 

 12 inches deep, are used per acre. This takes 60 to 80 quarts of acorns 

 or 120 quarts of chestnuts. The conifer seed, such as Scotch pine, 

 Austrian pine, or aleppo pine, is sown at the rate of 2.2 pounds per 1,000 

 seed spots. Fir seed is also sown in the autumn in seed spots 4 to 5 inches 

 square and 3 inches deep, 800 to the acre where there are open beech 

 or pine stands. 



In the Pyrenees, in the eastern part, sowing is used only for sessile 

 and holm oak and in order to introduce fir under the shelter of other 

 species. The seed spots, about 1,000 per acre, having the same size 

 as those in the Aude, are sown with fifteen to twenty acorns each. The 

 young seedlings obtained are cultivated. The stones which may cover 

 them are removed and every 2 or 3 years trees or brush which suppress 

 them are removed until they reach the age of 8 to 10 years, when the 

 young stands are cut back, after which they grow very rapidly. The 

 cost of sowing depends on the region, on the method, and on the kind 

 of seed. As an average the cost of day labor per acre for broadcast 

 sowing was 46 cents, $1.73 for sowing with a very light soil cover at high 

 altitudes, and $2.31 to $4.62 for sowing by seed spots. To this expense 

 must be added the cost of the seed, 41 cents to $1.07 per bushel for 

 acorns or chestnuts and 44 cents to 88 cents per pound for conifer seed. 

 To-day all these prices are double or triple or even more. 



According to one authority 14 maritime pine will not grow if the soil 

 is more than 4 per cent lime, but ordinarily the reproduction is easy on 

 bare soil, since the seed is both winged and abundant. With 75 per cent 

 germination and broadcast sowing it takes about 10.6 pounds of seed 

 per acre, with strip sowing 7 pounds, and with seed spots 4.4 pounds, 

 but these figures may be doubled or tripled under unfavorable conditions. 

 Where sowing fails it is often customary to fill in by planting, which 

 can be successfully done if the seedlings planted are 1 to 2 or more 

 years old. 



On the Combre dune the sowing was 9 pounds per acre of maritime 

 pine, 8 of "genista," and 3.5 kilograms of "gourbet." (See p. 182 for 

 additional data on sowing sand dunes.) 15 



" La Foret, par L. Boppe, pp. 47, 205, 206, 332-341. 



16 In 1912 a member of the U. S. Forest Service raised the following questions regard- 

 ing the French forestation practice: 



1. Question. Is there any way to treat refractory seed to make it come up the first 

 season? Answer. See p. 119. 



2. Q. What methods and tools do they use in nursery transplanting? A. 

 Seedling stock is usually preferred; transplanting methods have not been systematized 

 as in Germany. See pp. 123, 124. 



