Plant Succession Exhibit.  Plan each year one of a series of parallel strips.  A chronological series of successional plant communities will thus be created.  The elementary student can grasp the meaning of such a series much better than he can grasp the accidental series heretofore used for teaching.

Rodent Pressure Exhibit.  Plant a series of parallel strips with palatable and unpalatable trees and shrubs.  Fence half against rodents, leave half open.  The result will be a visual demonstration of rodent pressure.

Shade Tolerance Exhibit.  Plant a series of parallel strips with common trees and shrubs, one end of the series lying under overhead shade, the other extending into open land.

Erosion Exhibit.  Plow and cultivate half of a field on contour, and plow under a green manure crop each spring.  Work with the other half up and down hill, and omit green manures.  Use the same rotation on both.

Underplanting Exhibit.  The natural oak-hickory woods west of the pharmaceutical garden is typical “encroachment timber”, i.e. it consists of pre-settlement veteran oaks surrounded by 80-year old oaks dating from the cessation of prairie fires in the 1850’s.  Determine the ages of both by increment borer, and label them.  Then underplant half with hard maple and basswood.  Screen half the underplanted area against rabbits and leave half unscreened.  An exhibit of the sub-climax transition into climax will thus be available, as well as an exhibit of the retarding action of rodents.

Red Cedar Plantation Exhibit.  The gravel moraines of S.E. Wisconsin present a peculiar forestry problem, in that they are too limey for pines and oak plantings are too slow, and too beset by rodent risk, to be attractive to farmers.  Red cedar planted for fence posts is ideally suited for such soil, provided there be no apple orchard near.  The University Bay area contains gravel moraines, but the Arboretum does not. The Young apple orchard would, however, be injured by this installation of cedars. 

University Bay Committee
A. D. Hasler, Chariman
April 14, 1944

cc  Hasler         Dickson
      Keitt           Longenecker