EXPERIMENT STATION 



OF THE 



KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 



MANHATTAN. 



BULLETIN No. 120 JANUARY 1904. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



ALBERT DICKENS, M. S., Horticulturist. 

 G. O. GREENE, M. S., Assistant. 



Tests of Forest Trees. 



ONE of the first experiments planned and carried out by the Kan- 

 sas State Agricultural College was the planting of forest trees. A 

 number of years previous to the establishment of the Experiment 

 Station, many species of trees were propagated and planted. It is the 

 purpose of this publication to give, up to date, the notes and observa- 

 tions concerning the growth and success of these plantings, as well as 

 a report upon some of ( the comparatively recent plantings made by the 

 Experiment Station. 



A few quotations from the early College reports will serve to ac- 

 quaint the reader with the conditions and purposes of planting. 



In the Fifth Biennial Report, 1872, Prof. E. dale, then in charge 

 of the Horticultural Department, said in reference to the planting of 

 that year : 



"The land selected for this purpose (forest culture) is the least adapted to 

 the cultivation of roots and cereals of any now broken up on the College farm.* 

 This selection, all things considered, was thought best, for it is in general this 

 quality of soil the high, gravelly and broken ridges which should ultimately 

 be planted to forests. It is, then, a matter of interest to learn what may be ex- 

 pected as the result of forest culture on such exposed situations as the one selected. 

 As was anticipated, the growth of the young trees has not been so vigorous as it 

 would have been on lower and richer land, but still abundantly sufficient to give 



*Now upper (or old) College farm. 



(85) 



