2 BULLETIN" 149 7, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
What reforestation has as yet been done represents only a start in 
the right direction. Up to and including 1926, only 0.33 per cent of 
the area had been planted. Even at the rate of 15,000 acres a year, 
the area planted in 1926, more than 1,300 years would be required to 
reforest the 20,000,000 acres. No region can afford to have so large 
an area of land lying idle for centuries. But to remedy this situa- 
tion a large and continued expansion of forest planting by all agen- 
cies in each of the States is essential. 
The area in need of reforestation undoubtedly includes some lands 
on which more or less natural tree growth has already started. As 
the fire-protection work of the States and other organizations be- 
comes more effective the scattered seedling trees escape destruction 
and live, grow, and increase in number. If these lands were to be 
protected for a sufficient period, a large part of them undoubtedly 
would restock with trees naturally, although chiefly with inferior 
kinds and those of low value. Here better fire protection will help 
and is essential, but it can not be said to offer a solution for all these 
idle lands. The process of natural restocking would be so slow that 
the owners, whether public or private, could better afford to plant 
the lands than suffer the loss from holding them unproductive for so 
many years. Under present conditions any decrease in the area in 
need of planting as a result of natural reforestation tends to be 
equaled or exceeded by the areas cut over and burned annually. 
THE REGION AND ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
The land in need of reforestation to which this bulletin applies 
(fig. 1), lies in the northern two-thirds of the States of Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It includes the area north of a line from 
Saginaw Bay, in Michigan, westward through Sheboygan, Wis., 
thence northwestward through St. Croix Falls, Wis., to Wadena, 
Minn., and northward to Thief River Falls and the Canadian bound- 
ary. This is the region from which the famous white pine lumber 
of the Lake States came, and which more recently has produced and 
continues to produce a large quantity of sugar maple, eastern hem- 
lock, basswood, yellow birch, beech, spruces, balsam fir, and jack 
pine. It does not include the southern parts of the three States, 
where oaks, hickories, and maples are the characteristic trees usually 
occurring as small woodland areas on farms. The planting prob- 
lems of the southern area of the Lake States are not the same as those 
of the north ; they have already been covered to some extent in several 
published reports (2, x 6, 13, U, 32, 33, 3!±, 38, GO, 63, 68, 69, 78). 
The climate, topography, and soil, although varying locally, are 
for the region as a whole comparably uniform. The precipitation 
ranges from about 25 inches annually in parts of lower Michigan and 
western Minnesota to 40 inches in northwestern Wisconsin. For 
most of the region it is between 30 and 35 inches annually, of which 
20 to 25 inches falls during the growing season from April 1 to 
September 30. The snowfall increases northward and is noticeably 
heavier and remains on the ground longer in the region of Lake 
Superior and in northern Minnesota than elsewhere in the region. 
1 Keference is made by italic numbers in parentheses to literature cited, p. 83. 
