REFORESTATION TO PAY DIVIDENDS 153 



plowed, and then about half a pound per acre of 

 Longleaf, Loblolly and Slash pine seed were drilled 

 into the soil. The results here are already evident, 

 and the ground is well covered with fine little 

 seedling trees of these species. Fair results have 

 also been obtained where several thousand Loblolly 

 seedlings found in the woods under the mature trees 

 were transplanted. These seedlings could not have 

 lived under the shade of the dense tops, but about 

 fifty per cent, are now doing well on a cut-over 

 area. When it is considered that fifty mature trees 

 to an acre here constitute a fair stand, it is evident 

 that, even if a high percentage of the seedlings is 

 lost, the experiment will still have proved successful. 

 It is interesting to note that after advertising to 

 buy pine seed at one to two dollars a pound without 

 success, the company was subsequently able to col- 

 lect its own seed from the heavy 1920 crop at a cost 

 as low as fifty cents a pound. 



It should be kept in mind that all these methods 

 of artificial reforestation have been purely experi- 

 mental, and the most practical ideas will be grad- 

 ually evolved. The keynote of the whole plan is 

 not to assist Nature, but so far as possible to 

 remove the obstacles which man has placed in her 

 way. The Forestry Department operates well 

 ahead of the logging crews, plowing out its fire 



