42 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Forester Knechtel, who did this sowing, was instructed to make a careful 

 examination of this ground last spring, and make a report on the result. 

 He found the surface under the young poplars — trees twenty to twenty- 

 five feet high — thickly covered with little spruce seedlings, and this report 

 was so encouraging that broadcast sowing will be undertaken on a large 

 scale as soon as we can gather a supply of seed from our native spruce for 

 that purpose. The experiment at Aiden Lair indicates that the numerous 

 areas of poplar forest which now cover many of the old burns can be suc- 

 cessfully underplanted with red spruce. 



v5aranac Narser^ 



The work on the construction of a nursery at Saranac Inn R. R. Station, 

 Franklin county, which was suspended in 1903 through lack of an appro- 

 priation that year for reforesting, was resumed last spring. Seed beds for 

 various coniferous species were then made and the seed put in. In order 

 to gain time one-half of the nursery area was set out with two-year old 

 seedlings of white pine, Scotch pine, and Norway spruce, planted in beds 

 four feet wide and fifty feet long. For this purpose 125,000 seedlings- 

 were purchased from commercial nurseries in Illinois, at prices varying 

 from $2.50 to $5.50 per thousand plants. The white pine seedlings cost, 

 on an average, $4. 62 J; the Scotch pine, $3.00, and the Norway spruce 

 $2.50 per thousand. 



As the present intention is to use the Saranac nursery for a supply 

 of four-year-old transplants, these seedlings will have to remain in the beds 

 two years, and will not be available for field planting until the spring of 1906. 



In order to have, in time, a supply of four-year-old transplants each 

 year, one-half of the nursery area was allowed to lie fallow, with the intention 

 of filling it with two-year-old seedlings this coming spring. After that the 

 seed beds will enable us to dispense with further purchases of stock for the 

 nursery. The portion which lay fallow was planted with a crop of buck- 

 wheat, which was plowed under in the fall, and the soil was further enriched 

 with a light covering of black muck and some compost taken from a large 

 pile kept on hand at the nursery for this purpose. 



A substantial paling fence now surrounds the enclosure, and a tool house 



