30 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 351 



lings can be collected in the spring and set in the nursery with a low mor- 

 tality, it may prove to be the best procedure for handling species difficult 

 to store or slow to germinate. Considerable \\'ork is necessary to deter- 

 mine the proper technique of handling, the probable per cent of survival, 

 and relative expense of handling the various species. A possible alterna- 

 tive is that of moving these plants directly to their final site, eliminating 

 the period in the nursery, and thereby reducing the cost of regenerating 

 an area. A very limited test on red oak gave poor results last season, but 

 there is no reason to believe that such a procedure cannot be successfully 

 and cheaply carried out. During the coming year it is planned to develop 

 the details of a more comprehensive experiment on this tvpe of 

 plantation. 



C. L. Stevens 

 White Pine Stands 



Last year was not a seed year for white pine in this locality, and 

 therefore nothing was added to the study of seed production on the es- 

 tablished plots. One plantation of white pine was established in the 

 spring of 1943, and this represents the extent of work on this project due 

 to labor conditions. Some attention will be given to the development of a 

 better strain of white pine during the coming year. There are now in the 

 nursery 4-year-old transplants raised from seed collected in Michigan and 

 in northern New Hampshire. These trees ^\ ill be kept separate when 

 planted and their growth and development compared with each other and 

 with a local strain. Each of these groups is apparently somewhat more 

 vigorous than the average run of white pine transplants' raised in our nur- 

 sery. If they are able to maintain this superiority after being set out on 

 the poor sites afforded in our university woodland, it ^\•ill be an excellent 

 indication that something can be done about improving our stands of 

 white pine. 



C. L. Stevens 



Spruce Reproduction 



Due to war travel conditions, the plots in northern New Hampshire 

 were not visited during the past vear. 



It appears that the problem of securing satisfactory spruce reproduc- 

 tion may be one of exposure of the young seedlings to adverse weather 

 conditions. About 40 years ago a special cutting system was developed 

 in Europe to secure better survival in naturally seeded areas of Norway 

 spruce. The fundamental feature of this new system \\ as the protection 

 given the young trees against the direct rays of the sun and against dry- 

 ing winds, which might tend to kill most of the young and tender seed- 

 lings during the first summer. There are no experiments known to the 

 leader of this project for testing the results obtainable by the use of such 

 a system. A visit to a large number of cuttings throughout northern New 

 Hampshire might give evidence to justify the assumption that our native 

 spruce would respond to this type of treatment. The best alternative is 

 to experiment in the nursery in order to test the effect of better protec- 

 tion on young spruce seedlings. Such a test is planned for the coming 

 year, 



C. L. Stevens 



