220 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



To further the work of cooperative forest planting, public meet- 

 ings were held and lectures were given in North Carolina, Iowa, Illi- 

 nois, and Nebraska. 



RESERVE PLANTING. 



SAN GAEBIEI. TOEEST RESERVE. 



During the past year the two established nurseries in the San 

 Gabriel Forest Reserve were consolidated by the removal of the lath 

 house of the Pasadena nursery to Henningers Flat. By this change 

 the productive capacity of the Henningers Flat nursery was in- 

 creased about one-third. There are now about 11,520 square feet of 

 ■ground under lath. This area has been replanted to seed beds since 

 the removal of the 1-year-old stock to open ground. The seeds 

 sown should produce about 300,000 plants. The species mainly used 

 were the Jeffrey pine, big cone spruce, knob cone pine, and Coulter 

 pine, in the order named. For field planting in the San Gabriel Re- 

 serve 2-year-old trees once transplanted are most desirable. Dur- 

 ing March of this year 210,700 1-year-old seedlings, chiefly of these 

 species, were transplanted from the seed beds in the lath house to nur- 

 sery beds and the loss will not exceed 0.047 per cent. 



To check the rapid height growth of certain species, as the Coulter 

 and Monterey pines and big cone spruce, and thereby to secure stocky 

 plants which rabbits will not molest, " topping " was tried. Several 

 thousand trees were cut back three-fourths of their length before 

 transplanting, and others when transplanted, with very satisfactory 

 results. A root-pruning knife was devised, with which the roots can 

 be cut at any depth from 3 to 10 inches. It. has been used only ex- 

 perimentally, but thus far with gratifying success. 



During April and May of this year 37,000 trees, chiefly 2-year- 

 old transplants, were set out, in greater part for experimental pur- 

 poses. For the protection of the Henningers Flat nursery and the 

 new forest plantations, a system of fire lines was laid out and con- 

 structed after the completion of the planting. 



To promote the reforestation of the watersheds and to extend the 

 range of experimental planting, 8,560 trees were given to the city 

 of Los Angeles for planting in Griffith Park and 3,106 to individuals 

 in lots of from 150 to 1,500. All the trees were planted under in- 

 structions from the Service, and, except in two cases, were set on 

 watersheds within forest reserves. 



SANTA BARBARA FOREST RESERVE. 



In view of the extremely high value of water in the vicinity of 

 Santa Barbara and of the denuded condition of the important 

 drainage basins, reforestation work was begun in the Santa Barbara 

 Forest Reserve in March, 1905. A forest nursery was established 

 within the reserve, at an elevation of 2,000 feet, on the San Marcos 

 road, 13 miles from the city of Santa Barbara. The necessary land 

 and water privileges were secured by lease. A lath house covering 

 5,760 square feet of ground space was erected, in which seed beds 

 were prepared and seed sown. 



A detailed planting plan for the watersheds in urgent need of 

 reforestation will be completed during the summer. The Mono Basin 

 and the watersheds of the Santa Ynez River above the Gibraltar 

 reservoir site will receive first attention. 



