REFOEESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 
21 
methods which have been used are burning, harrowing with an 
ordinary spring-tooth or disk harrow, dragging tree tops or stumps 
over the ground, and plowing. An area thoroughly trampled by 
sheep or which has been used as a sheep driveway, the soil of which 
has become loose, is usually in good condition for sowing. Covering 
broadcasted seed by harrowing or otherwise is not usually practiced. 
Where it has been tried, better germination has sometimes been se- 
cured on experimental areas, but the final stand has been little, 
if any, better. On a successful broadcasted area of Douglas fir on 
the San Isabel National Forest the seed were raked in by hand. 
The best results with broadcast sowing may be expected where the 
soil is loose and moist at the surface, where some protection is 
afforded seedlings against heat and drought, and where rodents can 
be controlled'. Burned areas covered with down timber, aspen, or 
brush of not too dense a character, and without much leaf litter, 
offer good sites for broadcast sowing without preparing the ground 
or covering the seed. 
Broadcasting has in general proved the least successful of direct 
seeding methods. It requires large quantities of seed; it is expen- 
sive, particularly so where some method of preparing the ground 
or covering the seed is followed ; the seedlings are likely to come up 
in groups because of the erosion of the soil and destruction of the 
seed by rodents; and it must be largely confined to sites where the 
mineral soil is exposed, usually burned or logged over areas. On the 
other hand it is a simple and rapid method, one man being able to 
cover from 20 to 40 acres in a day ; and operations can be conducted 
during winter, the season when other work is not pressing. (PI. 
VI, flg. 1.) 
SOWING IN STEIPS AND BLOCKS. 
Strip sowing and block sowing are modifications of the broadcast 
method. Sowing in strips has the advantage that it does not require 
the covering of the entire area. Narrow strips, 3 feet wide or less, 
are sometimes prepared in various ways, such as plowing, harrowing, 
or raking. Sometimes no preparation at all is given. On hillsides 
the prepared strips should run along contour lines, not up and down. 
Strips so run catch and retain the precipitation, and also prevent 
the soil and seed from being washed down by rain. In a flat coun- 
try they should run east and west, and when a plow is used, the fur- 
rows should be turned toward the south. This will give the seed- 
lings some protection from the sun during the first year. Less seed 
per acre is required in strip sowing, but the seed is sown more thickly 
per square rod on the strip seeded than on the area broadcasted. 
Strip sowing is a method particularly adapted to quick-growing 
species which will soon bear seed and thus seed up the intervening 
areas. 
