SYLVICULTURE 



Biltmore Forest is deficient in Maple. Still, Hard Maple planted 

 on abandoned fields, pure or in mixture with White Pine, has done 

 admirably, excepting dry S. W. slopes, dry spurs, and very moist 

 river bottoms. 



In Pisgah Forest, Red Maple usually appears as a weed over- 

 shadowing aristocratic seedlings. 



I. Ashes: 



I. Primeval forests: The Ashes usually regenerate and stand 

 in patches or groups, occupying the moister sites. 



II. Culled high forests: 



Protected by moist ground, the Ashes stand a good chance to 

 escape the fires. During early youth, the seedlings endure remarkably 

 heayy shade. Weeding and improvement-cuttings produce splendid 

 results. 



III. Cultured high forests: 



Regeneration in the group type is easy, if helped by cleaning 

 (Duckcr Mountain of Biltmore Estate) and gradual removal of the 

 obstructing trees. On old fields, on moist slopes, White Ash is 

 often accompanied by Yellow Poplar and Halesia. 



Plantations of 3-year-old (xreen Ash have failed utterly at Bilt- 

 more on dry, hard soil. 



Plantations of 3-year-oid White Ash in half -swamps do ;very 

 well; also seed plantations on good soil in the gaps of a ridge. 



The early growth is very fast. 



Seeds are profusely produced from the pole stage on. 



J. Red Spruce : 



I. Primeval forests: The primeval Spruce woods appear as 

 more or less even-aged compartments in the swamps and sloughs of 

 the Lake States and on the dry, shallow South slopes of New England ; 

 in the cleared group form and in the selection form in Wester^ N. C. 

 at altitudes exceeding 5,000 feet, mixed with Abies fraseri (selec- 

 tion) ; in the selection form, grafted upon compartments of Beech and 

 Maple, on the hardwood slopes of the Adirondacks. In the latter 

 case. Spruce never regenerates in the heavy layer of broad-leafed 

 humus, but selects invariably the half- rotted corpse of a dead tree 

 for a seed-bed. 



II. Culled high forests: In slightly culled forests immune from 

 fires, Red Spruce seems to reproduce with remarkable ease. On fired 

 ground, Birches and Cottonwoods frequently act as ushers. Its 

 persistence below an impenetrable leaf canopy of Beech or Maple is 

 surprising. I'reed from superstructure, after long years of suffering, 

 it answers the chance for rapid growth almost immediately. 



- 1.51 



