REFORESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 21 



methods which have been used are burning, harrowing with an 

 ordinary spring-tooth or disk harrow, dragging tree tops or stumps 

 over the ground, and plowing. An area thoroughly trampled by 

 sheep or which has been used as a sheep driveway, the soil of which 

 has become loose, is usually in good condition for sowing. Covering 

 broadcasted seed by harrowing or otherwise is not usually practiced. 

 Where it has been tried, better germination has sometimes been se- 

 cured on experimental areas, but the final stand has been little, 

 if any, better. On a successful broadcasted area of Douglas fir on 

 the San Isabel National Forest the seed were raked in by hand. 



The best results with broadcast sowing may be expected where the 

 soil is loose and moist at the surface, where some protection is 

 afforded seedlings against heat and drought, and where rodents can 

 be controlled. Burned areas covered with down timber, aspen, or 

 brush of not too dense a character, and without much leaf litter, 

 offer good sites for broadcast sowing without preparing the ground 

 or covering the seed. 



Broadcasting has in general proved the least successful of direct 

 seeding methods. It requires large quantities of seed; it is expen- 

 sive, particularly so where some method of preparing the ground 

 or covering the seed is followed ; the seedlings are likely to come up 

 in groups because of the erosion of the soil and destruction of the 

 seed by rodents; and it must be largely confined to sites where the 

 mineral soil is exposed, usually burned or logged over areas. On the 

 other hand it is a simple and rapid method, one man being able to 

 cover from 20 to 40 acres in a day ; and operations can be conducted 

 during winter, the season when other work is not pressing. (PI. 

 VI, fig. 1.) 



SOWING IN STRIPS AND BLOCKS. 



Strip sowing and block sowing are modifications of the broadcast 

 method. Sowing in strips has the advantage that it does not require 

 the covering of the entire area. Narrow strips, 3 feet wide or less, 

 are sometimes prepared in various ways, such as plowing, harrowing, 

 or raking. Sometimes no preparation at all is given. On hillsides 

 the prepared strips should run along contour lines, not up and down. 

 Strips so run catch and retain the precipitation, and also prevent 

 the soil and seed from being washed down by rain. In a flat coun- 

 try they should run east and west, and when a plow is used, the fur- 

 rows should be turned toward the south. This will give the seed- 

 lings some protection from the sun during the first year. Less seed 

 per acre is required in strip sowing, but the seed is sown more thickly 

 per square rod on the strip seeded than on the area broadcasted. 

 Strip sowing is a method particularly adapted to quick-growing 

 species which will soon bear seed and thus seed up the intervening 

 areas. 



