2yo 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



July 



PLANTING ON SAND BARRENS AND 

 SEASIDE DUNES. 



In Connecticut, Rhode Island, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, and other 

 eastern states, there are large areas of 

 sand plains or waste, barren lands which 

 at present are a source of expense to 

 their owners. It is not practicable to 

 farm them, as there is not sufficient fer- 



This height 

 trees are in 



WHITE PINE PROTECTIVE PLANTATION TWEXTV-TWO YEARS 

 OLD, EAST GREENWICH, R. I. 



tility in the soil to produce crops, and 

 it is not advisable to fertilize them, for 

 the first heav}' rain would cause a great 

 loss of fertilizer through seepage into 

 the porous soil. Little tree growth is 

 present, except occasional trees and 

 bushes. The ground is covered for the 

 most part with grasses of inferior value. 

 It has been shown in a plantation at 



Shakers, Conn., that these lands will 

 produce a good growth of White Pine. 

 In pure, drifting sand the trees in this 

 plantation have made an average annual 

 height growth of i .44 feet per year from 

 the time when 4 to 6 inch seedlings were 

 planted, 25 years ago, up to the present, 

 the average height now being 36 feet, 

 growth, even though the 

 sand, is greater than the 

 average height growth of 

 planted White Pine in the 

 East, which at 25 years of 

 age is only 32 feet, an aver- 

 age of 4 feet less than the 

 plantation in the sand. As 

 shown above, successful 

 planting can be practiced 

 here with as great returns 

 as in many of the more 

 valuable soils. 



At the seaside the prob- 

 lem is often not so much of 

 practical money-making as 

 of preventing drifting sand 

 from destroying valuable 

 property. Near the coast 

 the White Pine is not the 

 best tree for this use, owing 

 to the injurious effect of 

 salt winds upon its foliage. 

 However, for the interior 

 sand lands of the East, 

 north of the Carolinas, no- 

 better tree can be recom- 

 mended for planting. 



PLANTING ON BARE LANDS- 

 AND WORN-OUT PASTURES. 



Under this head may be 

 considered lands of im- 

 mense extent in the East 

 which are practically 

 worthless for other pur- 

 poses, yet which show fa- 

 vorable conditions for for- 

 est planting. In many regions, espe- 

 cially in Massachusetts, Connecticut,, 

 and New Hampshire, these bare lands 

 are slowly being covered naturally 

 with White Pine. This growth in 

 most cases will never be of value, be- 

 cause, standing as it does in the 

 open, it is low and branching. Such 

 trees, if sufficiently large, may be left 



