8 BULLETIN" 14 9 7, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
tions as a whole are as follows: Norway spruce, 7 per cent; northern 
white pine, 8 per cent; Scotch pine, 10 per cent; jack pine, 12 per 
cent; Norway pine, 19 per cent; white spruce, 45 per cent; 4 and 
European larch, 50 per cent. 
Expressed in another way, the average survival for 145 Norway 
pine plantations was 56 per cent ; for 123 northern white pine planta- 
tions, 57 per cent; and for 67 jack pine plantations, 56 per cent. 
PRESENT PLANTING PRACTICE 
Past experience in forest planting in the Lake States is sufficient 
to demonstrate satisfactory technic. Differences in planting practice 
between the different organizations now engaged in forest planting 
in the region are due to the fact that two or three methods give 
closely comparable and satisfactory results. The basis of planting 
technic is a thorough understanding of species and seasons for 
planting, the size and age of the trees to be planted, the best methods 
of planting, the space between the trees or the number of trees which 
should be set out to the acre, and the species which should be planted 
together. 
These older plantations, with an average of 56 per cent of the 
trees living, were set out when planting methods were not as well 
developed as they have been more recently. On some 5,000 acres of 
the Huron National Forest and on 14,000 acres of the State 
forests in Michigan more recent plantations have an average sur- 
vival of 85 per cent. This figure undoubtedly represents more accu- 
rately the degree of success which is being attained and which may 
be expected in forest planting in the northern Lake States, 
DIRECT SEEDING 
The sowing of seed in seed spots or broadcast on the planting 
sites (20) has been thoroughly tested in the Lake States. About 
the time the first plantings were made, direct seeding of Norway, 
northern white, and Scotch pine and red oak was tried, but without 
sufficient success to justify its continuance. On some plantations a 
few trees survived, but most of them were complete failures. The 
poor results in Michigan (52) were attributed to the effects of hot, 
dry weather upon the small seedlings on the open sandy soils. 
Hodents were apparently not responsible, since seed treated with sub- 
stances poisonous to rodents gave no better results than untreated 
seed. As a result of these failures, direct sowing in the region has 
been abandoned as a means of establishing plantations. 
There are examples, however, in this and adjacent regions of suc- 
cessful reforestation by sowing the seed directly on the planting 
site. At the Petawawa Forest Experiment Station in Ontario 
northern white pine seed was sowed in spots under three 40-year- 
old stands having, respectively, 1,715, 1,278, and 600 aspen, paper 
birch, and other trees to the acre. After two years there were, re- 
spectively, 320, 1,600, and 8,075 living white pine seedlings (5-5, 73). 
4 The showing of white sprnce is, however, probably not indicative for that species, for 
almost all of the white spruce planting has been done in Minnesota, where during the 
last few years the damage to small trees by snowshoe rabbits has been excessive. The 
white spruce plantations in Michigan and Wisconsin, where rabbit damage was not serious, 
have from 68 to 98 per cent of the trees living. 
