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44 BULLETIN 299,, U." S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PLANTING OF FAIL SPOTS AND DISENGAGEMENT CUTTINGS. 



A year or two after the seeding of a new crop (simultaneously with 

 the removal of the remaining shelter stand under the shelterwood 

 system, or during the first good season for planting which follows) 

 it is very desirable to go over the stand and plant one or more vigorous 

 young ash seedlings in every square rod which has no reproduction 

 of ash or other desirable species. Some places may be covered with 

 a thick growth of inferior species, in the middle of which a square 

 yard or so is cut clean and an ash seedling planted. Other square 

 rods may be fail spots for reproduction of any kind, and here four 

 (approximately 8 by 8 feet) or more seedlings should be planted, but 

 not necessarily all ash. 



Another important thing to be done at the time or within five 

 years (the sooner the better) of the final cutting of the remaining 

 mature stand is disengagement work. This consists in freeing the 

 crowns of a certain number of well-distributed and vigorous ash seed- 

 lings (and desirable seedlings of other species) from injurious crowding 

 on the sides and from overhead suppression by lopping off the less 

 desirable seedlings with a corn knife or brush axe. At least one well- 

 freed, vigorous seedling should be left on every square rod, and 

 preferably three or four seedlings of desirable species. One man 

 should be able to cover one or two acres a day in this kind of work. 



REFORESTING BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS. 



Artificial reforestation of ash is expensive, and should be limited 

 to cleared fields and pastures and to the choicer forest sites in the 

 natural habitat of the particular species to be grown. 



There are three general classes of artificial reforesting advisable for 

 ash: (1) Planting on cut-over forest areas (including fail-spot planting 

 in naturally reproduced stands) ; (2) dibbling in or sowing of ash seed 

 under cover of mature stands (with good soil moisture conditions) to 

 be removed the following year, or sowing immediately after clean 

 cutting of stands on moist, fertile, loamy sites free from undergrowth: 

 (3) planting or sowing of cleared areas, including chiefly old fields 

 and pastures. Underplanting of areas to be cut over later will 

 seldom if ever be advisable. 



In regard to the question of planting versus sowing, the former is 

 of much more general application and more certain of success; while 

 the latter is much the cheaper, and under some conditions has good 

 possibilities of success. 



PLANTING. 



Seedlings for planting should be nursery grown, as a rule, since 

 they are cheaper and much more likely to survive than wild stock. 

 Wild stock seedlings might be used locally to a very limited extent 



