IT 



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7-1-32 



as Haturc's insiarancc against disaster to the vrholc forest. Many forest in- 

 sects and diseases attack some species and not others, ?71ien such diseases 

 get into a stand made up altot'^cther of one susceptihlc species they do much 

 more danc^e tlian in a natural nixed forest of several different kinds of 

 trees. In Germany some years hack pure stands of spruce vrere created hy 

 planting spruce on cut-over lands formerly occupied hy mixed forests, hut 

 disaster followed. So unsuccessful liave heen the experiences with sucli 

 artificial forests, tliat United States Forest Service specialists liave urged 

 that we follow nature's methods more closely. In reforesting land, instead 

 of planting all the land to redwoods, for instance, to make a pure stand of 

 redwood, they suggest that a high, percentage of Do^Jglas fir, and lowland fir 

 and spruce may well he retained. 



Redwood hears plenty of seed, hut seedling reproduction, the for- 

 esters find, takes place only under a very narrow range of conditions. 

 Host of tlie new growth of redwoods on cut-over lands comes from redwood 

 sprouts from the st-uraps. Scattered clumps of redwood sprouts reclaim the 

 land. But unaided those redwood sprouts will yield something less tlian a 

 third of the possihle timher Imrvest, However, instead of filling in the 

 gaps with planted redwood, as haa heen done in a number of cases, the forest 

 stiggest seed trees of Do'uglas fir and other valuahle species to make the 

 full stand, 



Fj-om what they say.» I gather that it is well to follow nature's 

 methods in growing and harvesting timber crops, 



AmTOUITCSiEnT ; Wc will again hear from Uncle Sam's naturalists two weeks 

 from today. Those talks come to you through the cooperation of Station 

 and the United States Department of Agriculture, 



