Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station New Haven, Connecticut The Rainbow Forest Plantations Guide to Experimental Plots and Report of Progress 1924 Forestry Publication No. 15 The Bulletins of this Station are mailed free to citizens of Connecticut. who apply for them, and to other applicants as far as the editions permit. OFFICERS AND STAFF December, 1924. BOARD OF CONTROL. His Excellency, Charles A. Templeton, ex-officio, President. George A. Hopson, Secretary... W. L. Slate, Jr., Director and Treasurer.. Joseph W. Alsop.... Charles R. Treat.. Elijah Rogers.. Edward C. Schneider.. Francis F. Lincoln.. . Mount Carmel .New Haven .Southington Administration. Chemistry. STAFF. E. H. JENKINS, PH.D., Director Emeritus. W. L. SLATE, JR., B.Sc., Director and Treasurer. WILLIAM VEITCH, In charge of Buildings and Grounds. E. M. BAILEY, PH.D., Chemist in Charge. Analytical Laboratory. R. E. ANDREW, M.A. Entomology. Forestry. Plant Breeding. Soil Research. Tobacco Sub-station at Windsor W. T. MATHIS FRANK C. SHELDON, Laboratory Assistant. MISS MABEL BACON, Stenographer. T. B. OSBORNE, PH.D., Sc.D., Chemist in Charge. G. P. CLINTON, SC.D., Bolanist in Charge. E. M. STODDARD, B.S., Pomologist. MISS FLORENCE A. MCCORMICK, PH.D., Pathologist. WILLIS R. HUNT, M.S., Graduate Assistant. G. E. GRAHAM, General Assistant. MRS. W. W. KELSEY, Secretary. W. E. BRITTON, PH.D. Entomologist in Charge; State Entomologist. THE WILSON H. LEE Co. Guide to Experimental Plots and Report of Progress By HENRY W. HICOCK INTRODUCTION HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF TRACT. The Rainbow Forest Plantations of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station occupy approximately 100 acres in the towns of Windsor and East Granby, about one-half mile west of the village of Rainbow. The land was purchased at a low figure because its value for field crops had been demonstrated to be very low. As a matter of fact, cultivation had been given up several years prior to its acquisition by the Station and it was in various stages of reversion to forest growth. During recent years adjoining property, on which the soil differs but very little from that on the greater part of the Station land, has been cleared and utilized for the production of shade grown tobacco. The land now occupied by the plantations would probably yield a greater return per acre if utilized for shade tobacco instead of for the production of forest crops. The tract lies on a practically level bench about 100 feet in elevation above the Farmington River and 160 to 180 feet above sea level. The soil* on the major portion of the area is what was originally mapped by the U. S. Bureau of Soils in 1899 as "Windsor Sand", which name was changed in their Bulletin 96 to "Merrimac Coarse Sand." It is part of a deep deposit of glacial outwash material which forms an extensive plain in this portion of the state. The soil is a coarse sand, containing less than 10% of silt and clay, and the texture is very nearly the same to the depth of many feet. The surface soil contains sufficient organic matter to give it a medium brown color to a depth of 5 to 7 inches. The subsoil is of a yellowish color to a depth of about 3 feet, where it grades gradually to the dull gray which is imparted to it by the Notes on soil conditions furnished by Mr. M. F. Morgan of the Dept. of Soils, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. |