FOREST PLANTATIONS AT BILTMORE, N. C. 23 



BASSWOOP 



Two years after planting the basswoods in the Apiary plantation 

 were reported to be in very poor condition. None were seen at 

 Biltmore during the 1921-22 study. 



BUCKEYE 



Two years after planting a report was made that buckeyes in the 

 Apiary plantation were in very good condition. Aside from this, no 

 reference has been found. The only planted trees of this genus seen 

 during the 1921-22 study of the Biltmore plantations were a few 

 small trees in the Old Orchard plantation. 



AILANTHUS 



Ailanthus was another unsuccessful species, although it is rather 

 common as an ornamental in Asheville. The first season after plant- 

 ing 25 per cent of these trees that Schenck planted died; and during 

 the first few winters the frosts kept killing the rest of them back. 

 Only one tree of this species was seen at Biltmore during the 1921-22 

 study. 



FACTORS AFFECTING THE SUCCESS OF THE PLANTED TREES 



The successes and failures of the trees planted at Biltmore give a 

 good general idea of what species ought and ought not to be used in 

 making forest plantations in this region. An analysis of the causes 

 of these successes and failures will, however, put one in a yet better 

 position to make a wise choice. 



With the native forest of the region consisting largely of hardwoods, 

 Schenck concluded that hardwoods would be the most likely to succeed 

 in his plantings, but it can now be seen that he was overlooking one 

 or two very important facts. 



First of all, he was planting, not under a stand of hardwoods nor on 

 land from which hardwoods had just been taken, but on old fields 

 which had been cleared many years before. Even though parts of the 

 old forest were still standing next to his planting sites, they could not 

 be relied on as guaranteeing that the same species could be success- 

 fully planted. During the time that these fields were cultivated and 

 pastured and then left to run wild it is clear that the condition of the 

 land became very different from what it was just after the forest was 

 taken off. Because of poor handling and erosion, most of the humus 

 was gone, as well as a good deal of the topsoil. 



The pines, on the other hand, are trees which in this region are 

 normally characteristic of poor soils and old fields. A commonly 

 observed succession in the southern Appalachian region following 

 such abuse of the land as has just been mentioned is, first, pines, 

 chiefly hard pines, and later an invasion of the native hardwood species. 

 The precise causes for this type of succession are still to be ascertained. 

 Undoubtedly the exposure of the cleared site to sun and wind is one 

 of them, sites so exposed being drier and warmer. Possibly, also, there 

 may be a smaller supply of mineral nutrients in the worn-out soils 

 And certainly the superior mobility of the wind-borne pine seeds is 

 yet another significant influence. 



There are many examples at Biltmore of hardwoods failing when 

 old trees of the same species were present on or near the planting site. 



