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Recent experimentation in grass seeding has shown that several different kinds may be successfully used to revegetate abandoned farm and range lands in the ponderosa pine zone of Colorado. Many visitors to the Manitou Experimental Forest (a branch of the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, maintained by the U. S. Forest Service in cooperation with Colorado A & M College, Fort Collins, Colo.), near Woodland Park have asked, "Which grass is best?" To answer the question we have to consider growth characteristics of the grass, adaptability to elevation zones, rainfall pattern,...

Knowledge of fire behavior is an essential requirement for firefighters. Successful fire control operations depend, first of all, upon the ability of the protection forces to judge where and when fires will start and how they will behave once ignition takes place. Every member of the firefighting team from ranger to smokechaser must be able to make reliable estimates of the behavior of fires burning under a wide variety of conditions. These estimates must be good enough to provide the basis for decisions which will lead to fast, efficient, and safe firefighting.

Dedicated to the development of better methods of management and protection of forested lands, the Priest River Experimental Forest is maintained for research and demonstration purposes by the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. The chart on the opposite page shows where the Experimental Forest fits into the United States Forest Service organization.

The town of' Manitou is located in a narrow canyon of' Fountain Creek at the confluence of Williams Canyon and Ruxbon Creek. The drainage area above the town is 91 square miles. The town has suffered flood damages of $728,800 for the 45-year period 1902-1947 in 5 floods. For the period 1880-1947 there have been 9 moderate to severe floods. Williams Canyon, containing 3 percent of the drainage area, has been the sole contributor to 3 floods and a major contributor to 2 floods.

Ecotypic specialization in different parts of the ranges of widely distributed species is a phenomenon that has commanded the attention of botanists for several decades. Experience has usually shown that when plants are moved from their native habitat into a different environment they become subject to injuries from factors associated with the new environment, although occasionally they may prove more successful. The slow genetic fitting of plant populations to the peculiarities of the area which they have occupied for a long time is especially important in the artificial establishment of...

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) is the most widely distributed conifer in North America, and one of the most valuable. Commercial stands of the species are found in all of the 15 States which lie wholly or in part west of the 102d merinian, and in all but one it rank among the most important lumber producers. In the Southwest, ponderosa pine is of particular importance since this one species makes up 88 percent of the standing saw-timber volume in the two States of Arizona and New Mexico.

A survey was made of the soils and the physical conditions of the Manitou Experimental Forest during the summers of 1946, 1947, and 1948. The survey was made as a basis for (1) selection of sites for future experiments, (2) interpretation of results for experiments already in progress, and (3) obtaining a detailed knowledge of the soils of an area representative of the Pike National Forest and much of the Colorado Front Range.

The supercooling of water is a very common and universal phenomenon. Despite the common belief that water always freezes at 320 F (0° C) it can be easily shown that clouds of small water droplets normally cool to temperatures of 0° F (-17.5° C) without the formation of any ice crystals whatever. If it were not for this supercooling phenomenon we would not have the serious hazard to airplane flight through cold clouds which sometimes coat propellers and wing surfaces with heavy loads of ice. Neither would we experience intense lightning storms if clouds did not supercool.

The Manitou Experimental Forest is a branch of the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. It is in the Pike National Forest, 28 miles north and west of Colorado Springs. This experimental area of 26 square miles was established in 1936 to study problems of watershed management, grazing, and other kinds of land use in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. Studies were started in 1936 to find out what factors of land use are most important in controlling stream-flow and soil erosion. Range management studies were begun in 1941 and range reseeding tests in 1945. The Experimenta...

During the winter of 1945 and 1946, considerable rodent activity was noted in grass plots at the Manitou Experimental Forest established for the purpose of determining seed adaptability. The plots had been planted during October 1945, and the only seed present was that which had not yet germinated.