• Williams, Robert F.
  U.S. Forest Service, Savannah River Plant
  
• Hamilton, John R.
  School of Forestry, University of Georgia, Athens
  

Interest in fertilization of forest trees has increased markedly in recent years. While this interest has generally been focused upon the possibility of improving wood yield, there has also been speculation that fertilization might provide a means of modifying wood properties.

For the purpose of exploring this last possibility a study was started in the winter of 1959 to evaluate the effects of high level inorganic fertilizer applications to the soil on the ring width, percentage of late wood, specific gravity, and early wood tracheid wall thickness of plantation grown slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) The fertilizer treatments used were 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate per acre, 500 pounds of 20 percent superphosphate per acre, and these two together.