FOREST PLANTING IN THE INTERMOUNTAIN REGION. 



31 



Dense stands of brush, which offer keen competition with the spruce 

 for the supply of available soil moisture, are undesirable planting 

 sites. 



Old burns bearing a dense cover of grass or other shallow-rooted 

 vegetation are even more unfavorable planting sites, because they 

 lack shade as well as sufficient available soil moisture. 



LODGEPOLE PINE. 



Class of planting stock. — As has been emphasized in the discussion of 

 other species, the age class of stock is an important factor in the 

 success of a plantation. Table 15 gives a comparison of various 

 age classes of lodgepole pine stock which have been considered as 

 possibilities for field planting. In this comparison the 2-1 stock 

 shows the best balance between root and top. As has been noted 

 with all of the preceding species, seedling stock is unsuitable for field 

 planting both on account of its relatively poor development and its 

 small size. The 1-2 class of stock is considered unsuitable for at 

 least two reasons: (1) 1-year old seedlings are too small to transplant 

 economically, and (2) the top development is entirely out of propor- 

 tion to root development when left in the transplant bed a second 

 year, because of an excessive lateral development of the side branches 

 in addition to the increased terminal growth. A careful grading was 

 made of these three age classes of stock into two grades, "firsts" 

 and "culls," with the result that 2-0 stock showed 34. 9 per cent 

 firsts and 65.1 per cent culls; 2-1 stock, 70.7 per cent firsts and 29.3 

 per cent culls; and 1-2 stock, 53.5 per cent firsts and 46.5 per cent culls. 



Table 15. — Comparison of age classes of first-grade lodgepole pine firsts. 



Age class. 



Source of seed (national 

 forest) . 



Average 



diameter 



of stem 



at root 



collar. 



Average 

 length 

 of top. 



Average 

 length 

 of root. 



Average 

 weight 

 of top. 



Average 

 weight 

 of root. 



Ratio of 

 weight 



of root 

 to weight 

 of entire 



plant. 



1-2(1917). 





Inches. 



0.21 



.12 



.18 



.14 



Inches. 

 5.0 

 2.3 

 4.2 

 5.4 



Inches. 

 10.9 

 7.8 

 10.1 

 11.0 



Grams. 

 13.60 

 3.60 

 7.20 

 4.23 



Grams. 

 3.85 

 1.10 

 3.60 

 1.43 



Per cent. 

 22.1 



2-0(1917) 



2-1 (1917) 



2-1(1920) 



do 



do 



do 



23.4 

 33.3 

 25.3 



The firsts were stock which was considered suitable for field plant- 

 ing on the basis of size, vigor, and relative balance between root and 

 top. The culls were plants considered undesirable for the best 

 results in field planting. In the 2-1 class the culls were mostly due 

 to the small size of the tops. In the 1-2 class culling was due mainly 

 to an unsatisfactory balance between top and root, while with the 

 2-0 class the small size of tops caused a heavy culling in addition to 

 that due to an unsatisfactory balance between root and top. It is, 

 therefore, evident that the 2-1 class is the most desirable age of 

 lodgepole pine stock to use for field planting. Table 16 also bears 

 out the superiority of this age class, although the difference between 

 2-1 stock and the other age classes is not quite so striking with lodge- 

 pole as with western yellow pine, a fact attributable to the generally 

 better-developed root system of lodgepole pine. 



