1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



429 



begun independently and continued 

 with the approval of the Land Office, 

 was started in the early spring of 

 1904 by Ranger L. L. Davis in charge 

 of the General Grant National Park, 

 He has succeeded in setting out small 

 bigtree seedlings, collected from a few 

 localities where they had come up 

 naturally, to various sites about the 

 park, in openings where they will be 

 allowed a better chance to grow up. 



Tile naturally sown seedling sites 

 mentioned occurred where light 

 ground fires, spread from small fires 

 for the clearing up of the rubbish on 

 the forest floor, had cleaned the 

 ground of a heavy accumulation of lit- 

 ter. The germination of the seed of 

 the bigtree is slightly difficulty ordi- 

 narily hindered by the heavy trash and 

 litter accumulating under the Sequoia 

 stand, but an opportune seed year al- 

 lowed advantage to be quickly taken 

 of such favorably cleared spots, and 

 seedlings now two or three years old 

 have started several thousand times as 

 dense as they can live to grow up, the 

 number of seedlings averaging on 

 some spots over 2,500 to the square 

 rod. 



Noting this crowded reproduction 

 Mr. Davis conceived the idea that the 

 transplanting of such seedlings from 

 their frequently close-crowded posi- 

 tion under shade, where they were 

 sure to die out, was entirely practic- 

 able, and his experiments in 1904 were 

 sufficient to indicate the exact size of 

 plants and the methods of transplant- 

 ing which will give most assured sue- 

 cess, and allow the reproduction in the 

 pa.rk to be very largely extended. 



In 1904 some 800 plants were trans- 

 planted, Mr. Davis doing the work un- 

 aided. The trial was entirely satisfac- 

 tory, as very few seedlings died even 

 when set out in unfavorable conditions 

 of soil moisture. The plantation came 

 through a summer exceptionally hot 

 and droughty, even at the elevation 

 about 6,000 to 7,000 feet, of the park, 

 and though the watering of the trans- 

 plants, carried on into midsummer, 



had then to be abandoned because of 

 failing water supply. 



The available supply of plants of 

 the size which the past experience 

 showed to be the most desirable, was 

 short for the spring of 1905, and only 

 600 more seedlings were set out, 

 though the transplanting is to be con- 

 tinued and extended, and a large sup- 

 p l y o f forest-grown stock should be of 

 suitable size and maturity the spring- 

 ol ~. I 96- For the future further sup- 

 P n '. es f naturally sown stock is also 

 bein : provided for by the burning off 

 of the surplus litter in several places 

 in the P ark to catch the fall of seed 

 from ' ood seed y ears such as occurred 

 the fal1 of I 94- 



In the 1904 planting seedlings of a 

 size between i and 1 8 inches high were 

 du g U P carefully to avoid injury to 

 the long taproot system, were carried 

 in pails in, a puddle to the planting 

 sites generally the small fire-opened 

 s Pts in the forest, and set out in deep, 

 watered holes, the whole root system 

 being carefully spread out, and the 

 hole filled in with fine earth. They 

 were set out at the rate of about 100 a 

 day. 



Planting two seedlings together was 

 at fifst ^ but ag ^ se s edli a j_ 



liyed thfi ke wag d f SCQn _ 



tjnued NQ deathg resulted from a 

 seyre fr whkh occurred in A u 



immediately folowing the transplant- 

 when the soil was bare of snow _ 



Some trouble was experienced with 

 nd squirrelS; which occasionally 

 , the transpIantS) but they were 



readjl poisoned off _ 



The t lants came successfully 

 through the summer, in spite of the 

 cessation of the watering at the time 

 of greatest need, and nearly all the 

 seedlings were thrifty when measured 

 in the latter fall of the year. As might 

 be inferred from the very successful 

 sapling growth of the species in open 

 cut-over lands, from which bigtrees 

 have been lumbered, the best of the 

 transplanted growth occurred where 

 there was most abundant light. Plants 

 of 6 to 10 inches height grew from 5 



