108 Forest Club Annual 



drawn by a horse-operated capstan and steel cable and travels 

 at the rate of six feet per minute. 



SOWING AND PLANTING. 



Success in reforestation is so interrelated with nursery prac- 

 tice that the development of the latter is largely guided by the 

 necessities of the former. After the kind of stock necessary for 

 successful planting is produced, reforestation becomes largely a 

 matter of organization of the work to carry it on as cheaply as 

 possible. This is not wholly true, however, since in reforesta- 

 tion operations such questions as the relative value of sowing 

 versus planting, the time of year most suitable for the opera- 

 tions, and the best methods to pursue must be worked out. 



An immense amount of sowing has been conducted on the 

 National Forests, but in the main it has proven unsuccessful. 

 Lack of success has been attributed largely to rodents which 

 devour the seed, and to unfavorable weather conditions for the 

 two or three year period following germination of the seed. 

 It has developed that the success of either a sowing or planting 

 operation cannot be judged by the results six months or a year 

 after completion of the operations. Sowing on a large scale 

 has been consistently successful only with lodgepole pine on the 

 Arapaho National Forest of Colorado. On the Black Hills Na- 

 tional Forest of South Dakota, sowing of western yellow pine 

 has been intermittently successful. On these two Forests only 

 will seed sowing on a large scale be practiced until experiments* 

 on a small scale prove its advisability elsewhere. 



In sowing, seed spotting is more likely to prove successful 

 than broadcasting, although this latter method is at present fol- 

 lowed with lodgepole pine on the Arapaho. The fall of the year 

 has in general proven preferable to spring for direct seeding, 

 but in the Black Hills some success has been achieved through 

 sowing either in the spring or fall. 



In planting, the spring of the year is, over the greater part 

 of the West, thought to be decidedly preferable to fall. It is 

 considered essential to begin operations as soon as possible after 

 the snow leaves the site. Often they are started before it has 

 entirely disappeared. In southwestern Oregon and in California, 

 fall planting is, from a climatic viewpoint, considered preferable. 



The most successful all-around tool for planting operations 

 is the grub-hoe, or mattock. The common form is sometimes 

 slightly modified, as, for instance, in very rocky regions, the cut- 

 ting blade of the mattock may be replaced by a pick, or the dig- 



