718 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 







GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE LAND TO BE RE-FORESTED. A GROWTH OF TREES AND 

 SHRUBS IS ALREADY PRESENT ON STEEP BANKS AND ALONG OLD FENCE LINES. 



some day be of considerable value. The 

 checking of erosion is, of course, of 

 present and permanent value in that it 

 will prevent to a large degree the wash- 

 ing of soil and silt into the reservoir, 

 and the timber will eventually have a 

 very high value, because of the con- 

 stantly diminishing supply and the re- 

 sulting increase in timber values. This 

 project, therefore, is another example 

 of the increasingly large number of 

 forest tree plantations which are being 

 established for the purpose of con- 

 serving water, preventing destructive 

 floods and erosion, and the ultimate 

 production of timber. 



\\hen the plans of the University 

 had progressed this far, the Forestry 

 Department of the New York State 

 College of Agriculture offered to take 

 over the work of establishing the tree 

 plantations on the borders of the reser- 

 voir; and this proposition met with 

 such favor that the work was begun 

 this spring. It is expected that the 

 work of tree planting will continue in 

 following years until those portions of 

 the land which are not already occupied 

 by trees will be planted with species 

 of trees suitable to the soil and to the 

 varying conditions which exist on the 

 tract. 



The work of the present year con- 

 sisted in planting twenty thousand 

 trees, mostly white pine, on about 

 eighteen acres of land. The trees were 

 obtained from the New York State 

 Conservation Commission, and fully 

 ninety-five per cent of the trees planted 

 were four-year-old white pines. A 

 small plot is also planted with Scotch 

 pine, western yellow pine and Norway 

 pine, for the purpose of experimenta- 

 tion. That the conditions on this tract 

 are favorable for the growth of white 

 pine is shown by the fact that white 

 pine grows abundantly on the sur- 

 rounding hills and slopes which have 

 not been cleared in the past for agricul- 

 tural purposes. Further evidence that 

 the conditions are adapted to the 

 growth of white pine is obtained from 

 the fact that in fields which have not 

 been plowed or cultivated for several 

 years, an advance growth of white pine 

 seedlings is slowly but surely occupying 

 the ground. Figure 1 illustrates some 

 of this advance growth which has 

 sprung up naturally on one of the 

 steeper slopes just at the water line. 

 In several other places a large number 

 of young white pine seedlings, not 

 more than four or five years old, were 

 discovered during the course of the 



