FOREST SERVICE. 221 



PIKES PEAK FOREST RESERVE. 



During the field season of 1904 three nurseries were established in 

 the southern portion of the Pikes Peak Forest Keserve to furnish 

 seedlings for planting on the fire-denuded slopes of that region. In 

 the fall about one-fifth of an acre of seed beds was planted with seed 

 of Engelmann spruce, blue spruce, Douglas spruce, limber pine, 

 western yellow pme, and bristle-cone pine. Forty thousand western 

 yellow pme and 10,000 Douglas spruce seedlings from the Govern- 

 ment nursery at Halsey, Nebr., were planted on the mountain slopes 

 near Clyde. 



GILA RIVER FOREST RESERVE — FORT BAYARD MILITARY RESERVATION. 



An examination of the adaptability of the Fort Bayard Military 

 Reservation for forest planting, made in cooperation with the War 

 Department in April, 1905, was followed by the selection and leas- 

 ing of a nursery site at Stevens ranch, north of the military post, at 

 the only point where the necessary water rights could be obtained. 

 An acre of ground was prepared as a nursery, and seed beds with a 

 productive capacity of 3,000,000 seedlings were sown. About 300 

 pounds of seed of western yellow pine were used. They were sown 

 with a seed drill, at a cost of less than 5 cents per pound ; hand sow- 

 ing would cost about 50 cents. 



BLACK HILLS FOREST RESERVE. 



Reforestation work was begun in early June. On 32 acres western 

 yellow pine seed was sown broadcast. An area of 8 acres was planted 

 to seeds of the same species with a hand corn planter, improved for 

 the purpose, and 30,000 western yellow pine and 10,000 red fir seed- 

 lings raised in the Dismal River Forest Reserve nursery were set up, 

 2,000 to the acre. The operations were in the vicinity of Custer 

 Peak, near Roubaix, on the site of an old burn. 



DISMAL RIVER FOREST RESERVE. 



Created primarily as a tree-planting reserve, the Dismal River 

 Forest Reserve was the first on which planting was begun, and is still 

 the scene of the most extensive reserve planting directed by the 

 Forest Service. 



Nursery work. — In September, 1904, a careful estimate based on 

 sample-plot counts showed that the nursery stock at that time con- 

 sisted of 990,000 western yellow pine, 1,119,000 jack pine, 7,800 red 

 fir, and 50,000 white fir seedlings. Of these the western yellow pine, 

 red fir, and white fir came through the winter with probably less 

 than 5 per cent loss. The jack pine suffered a loss of about 75 per 

 cent through winter killing and the attack of a fungus. 



The cost of raising these seedlings to one year old, including cost 

 of the seed and one-tenth of the cost of constructing the shade frames, 

 amounted to not more than 85 cents per thousand. These seedlings, 

 as well as the other trees, are prospering. 



The area devoted to seed beds is now 2-J acres. One-half of this 

 area was sown to western yellow pine and jack pine this spring. The 

 remaining IJ acres contain one-year-old seedlings of western yellow 



