| Area: |
1.1. acres within the stone walls, which are visible from this point when the leaves are off. Notice them as you walk to the next station. |
| Purpose: |
To study the growth of white spruce and Scots pine in mixture. |
| History before planting: |
Abandoned field, later orchard and pasture. Apple, oak, and maple removed along borders and ground burned to get rid of accumulated dead grass in April, 1924. |
| Planting, 1924: |
One row of Scots pine alternated with three rows of white spruce. Rows oriented east-west. Trees planted on a 5' X 5' spacing. |
| Weeding, 1927, 1930, 1934: |
All undesirable overtopping woody growth, such as hardwood sprouts, cut back, principally around the edge of the plantation. |
| Filling in, 1927: |
Replaced dead seedlings in plantation. |
| Inspection, 1939: |
All Scots pine severely weeviled and falling behind spruce, although they had put on more height growth at first. |
| Thinning, 1944: |
Poorly formed and unhealthy Scots pine removed. |
| Thinning and Improvement Cutting, 1951: |
Well-formed spruce needed room to grow, so three rows of poorly formed Scots pine were taken out. |
| Pruning and Thinning, 1960: |
good trees pruned up to 8 feet. Dead and suppressed trees felled and sold for firewood. |
| Notes: |
On fine sandy loam like this, competition from sprouting hardwoods requires a lot of labor for weeding during the first 10 years. Little was gained by planting a mixture of species. The pines did not do well and have all been removed. |
| Insect attack, decay and windthrow: |
Intensive management of the plantation ceased after 1960. Unhealthy trees were left standing, susceptible to attack by insects and disease. Growing more than 100 miles south of their natural range contributed to these problems. The weakened condition of the trees, combined with a shallow rooting system resulted in considerable windthrow. |
| Diseased tree removal, 1993: |
All damaged, dying, or visibly declining trees removed. |
| Continued decline, 2003: |
Almost all white spruce have continued to decline and many have been windthrown or snapped, facilitating the natural succession to a mixed hardwood and pine stand. |
