492 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, ipi6. 



count, in the nature of the two 

 species, for the spruce is a tolerant 

 species and can stand the hght shade 

 which the aspen gives, almost with- 

 out being retarded in its growth. 

 The only problem is that of the pro- 

 fitable or at least costless removal 

 of the surplus of aspen. 



Aspen is by no means a useless 

 weed tree. Not only is it valuable 

 as a mere soil cover, recuperating 

 the soil after fires, but it furnishes 

 an acceptable fuelwood and pulp- 

 wood, and even an inferior grade of 

 lumber, especially for flooring. As- 

 pen also lends itself to use for small 

 woodenware, boxes, crates, pails, 

 excelsior. The establishment of in- 

 dustries near or in the reserves us- 

 ing this material is probably possi- 

 ble and should be brought about by 

 investigating the possibilities of se- 

 curing a sufficient supply of the raw 

 material and other factors favoring 

 such industries. 



Unfortunately, it is liable at an 

 early age to rot. Large areas of ma- 

 ture aspen, which look as if they 

 would cut satisfactory saw material, 

 are to the extent of 50 to 80 per 

 cent, "punky," and so far as known 

 useless. The silvicultural problem 

 of re-establishing the spruce must 

 wait upon the solution of the tech- 

 nological problem of fiinding a use 

 for "punky" wood, or a use where at 

 least a certain per cent, of rot is not 

 objectionable. 



Such large areas of pure aspen of 

 all ages are found in these and other 

 reserves that it will become an un- 

 avoidable necessity to work in part 

 for aspen reproduction, and in that 

 connection to solve the problem of 

 reducing or stopping the progress of 

 the disease, keeping it out of the 

 younger growths that are not yet 

 affected. 



The aspen problem is, indeed, a 

 general one throughout the whole 

 Eastern Dominion ; the develop- 

 ment of its profitable utilizations 

 should be made one of the studies 

 of the Forest Products Laboratories, 



Underbrush Problem. 



There is little or no difficulty in 

 establishing spruce under aspen of 

 the shade endurance of the latter, 

 but another, worse inimical agency 

 comes in to make difficulty. The 

 light shade of the aspen favors the 

 establishment of a dense under- 

 brush, especially of hazel, with an 

 admixture of half a dozen other 

 shrubs. This underbrush, keeps out 

 the spruce, keeps it from establish- 

 ing itself by natural seeding, and 

 would choke it out if planted, and 

 hence must be removed before a 

 young crop of spruce, and even of 

 aspen, could be established. Experi- 

 ments are needed to determine the 

 cheapest effective method of dealing 

 with this trouble. 



The incjuiry would be as to 

 whether cutting or burning produce 

 the more favorable conditions and at 

 what time of the year it is best to do 

 the one or the other. 



Planting Problems. 



The desire of the forester is to se- 

 cure his crop, if possible, by natural 

 regeneration; that is, to so handle 

 the mature crop that the seeds fall- 

 ing from it establish the new crop 

 before the seed trees are all re- 

 moved; this in order to avoid the 

 outlay for planting. But there are 

 large areas in these Reserves on 

 which no old crop of desirable spe- 

 cies is to be found, and it becomes 

 necessary to establish such species 

 by planting. The problem, then, is 

 to find the most suitable species and 

 the cheapest successful manner of 

 propagation. 



To gain an insight as to what spe- 

 cies to introduce, trial plantations on 

 a small scalQ are indicated. 



It is my impression that not only 

 in the aforementioned forestless re- 

 serves, and where desirable species 

 are lacking, but also in the well 

 wooded ones, planting will be found 

 often preferable to reliance on na- 

 tural regeneration. 



While the apparent economy in 

 relying on Nature's ability to estab- 



