Canadian Foreslry Journal, July, 1918 



1765 



Bringing Back the Wtiite Pine Forests 



By R. H. Campbell, Diri:ctor Foricstrv, Ottawa. 



A Striking Discussion of the Factors Helping and 

 Hindering the Growtli of Perpetuation of Pine. 



In spite of the value to which 

 spruce has climbed in recent years 

 and the dangers to the white pine 

 which are threatened by the while 

 pine blister rust and other evils the 

 fact remains that over a great part 

 of eastern Canada the while pine is 

 the best tree to grow while it is the 

 most distinctive and well-known tim- 

 ber. Its reproduction is therefore 

 a matter of great interest and one 

 well worthy of careful study and 

 observation. But at the outset it 

 should be recognized that the problem 

 is not a simple one and is not to be 

 solved finally and. satisfactorily l>y 

 opinions based on superficial obser- 

 vation or experiments, but will re- 

 quire years of careful management 

 and balancing of the various infiu- 

 ences that affect regeneration to 

 decide what is the best method to 

 follow and how it should be modified 

 to meet changing conditions. Gov- 

 ernment forest experiment stations 

 which will carry such experiments 

 through to a conclusion are absolutely 

 necessary if the proper methods are 

 to be worked out and understood. 

 AVith the cooperation of the Honorary 

 Council for Scientific and Industrial 

 Research a forest experiment station 

 is being organized by the Dominion 

 Forest Service at Petawawa in a 

 typical pine region of Ontario where 

 the systematic study of conditions 

 following lumbering for pine and the 

 possibility of bringing about its repro- 

 duction will be carried out. 



A Complex Problem 

 In the meantime the question may 

 be discussed from the general know- 

 ledge of the habits of the white pine 

 and of the methods followed in other 

 countries with species of the same 

 general characteristics. The first 

 thing that strikes the attention in 

 studying the methods followed in 



other countries is that the prol)lem is 

 not a simple one but a complex one 

 and varies with every varying con- 

 dition as to soil, moisture light and 

 mixture of species. To quote Pro- 

 fessor A. .lolyet of the Forest School 

 of Nancy in his work on Silviculture :- 



"A forest is not, like a field of 

 wheat, a simple group of individuals 

 of the same species growing side by 

 side to the time when the JDushman 

 decides the fit time has arrived to use 

 the axe; forest species, with require- 

 ments often the most diverse, find 

 themselves growing together and from 

 birth to old age they not only in- 

 crease in size but they modify their 

 wants not only according to the 

 physical condition of the soil which 

 bears them, or according to the 

 space which is allowed them; they 

 themselves, increasing in size or 

 shedding their foliage, have a consid- 

 erable action on the soil, upon the 

 ([uantity of light which they allov^ 

 to pass to it; upon the debris which 

 they give to it; always in a struggle 

 with one another they lend themselves 

 or oppose themselves to the existence 

 of a whole population of trees newly 

 arrived, of shrubs, of low plants or of 

 animals which in their turn react 

 upon them." 



The white pine is a tree suited to 

 light, well drained soils and such 

 soils are the ones that should be 

 devoted to its production Not that 

 it will not grow on richer soils as 

 the finest pine known was that 

 growing on good soil amongst the 

 hardwoods, but these lighter soils are 

 the ones available for forest purposes 

 to which the pine is best adapted 

 and on such soils it should be favored 

 in every way. 



Handicaps on Germination 

 What have been the results of 

 some of the operations that have 



