28 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



The work at the Fort Bayard station aims to reforest 7,000 acres 

 in the military reservation, as well as to improve reserve catchment 

 basins. The War Department, in December, 1905, granted the use 

 of 275 acres in the northern part of the reservation, on which a 

 transplant nursery of 1.4 acres has been prepared and an adobe sta- 

 tion building is under erection. 



None of the seedlings in the local nursery were large enough to 

 be set out this year, but 425 conifers were shipped in and field sow- 

 ing was tried with Mexican walnut and three native oaks on 48 plats, 

 aggregating 13.4 acres. 



SAM LAKE FOREST RESERVE ( WASATCH STATION). 



This station was established last spring in Big Cottonwood Can- 

 yon, near large areas in urgent need of reforestation. The nursery 

 site contains about 4 acres, one-half acre of which was covered with 

 a lath house and devoted to seed beds. Good planting sites and the 

 high value of water in Cottonwood Creek make forest planting on 

 this catchment basin promising and important. 



GARDEN CITY FOREST RESERVE. 



In May 51,000 western yellow pine from the Halsey nursery, and 

 40,000 red cedar, Osage orange, Russian mulberry, and honey locust, 

 purchased from dealers, were planted in four strii^s across one quar- 

 ter section. Experiments to learn whether cultivation is necessary ' 

 will be carried on during the summer. 



BLACK HILLS FOREST RESERVE. 



In the Custer Peak region the experimental broadcast sowing of 

 western yellow pine seed in May, 1905, had produced in October an 

 average stand of about 12,000 seedlings per acre. Last spring an 

 additional 500 pounds was sown in the same region, part on the 

 late melting snows and part on the bare ground immediately after 

 the snow had melted. If continued success follows this work it will 

 be possible to reforest the denuded portions of the Black Hills Forest 

 Reserve rapidly and at a very low cost. 



WICHITA GAME RESERVE. 



The first planting in this reserve was undertaken this spring on 

 an experimental scale, with 1,000 western yellow pine seedlings from 

 the Halsey nursery. A report from the supervisor, late in May, 

 stated that every one was growing. 



SEED COLLECTING. 



Most of the seed needed in the various nurseries was collected 

 locally. For the Halsey station it was necessary to collect jack pine 

 in Minnesota and western yellow pine in the Black Hills and western 

 Nebraska. 



Over 4,500 pounds of seed was on hand at the planting stations on 

 January 1, part of which was collected in 1903 and 1904. Of the 15 

 species represented, about 2,200 pounds was yellow pine, gathered at 

 a cost of only 33 cents per pound. 



