including white spruce, has had occasional success, but several constraining factors commonly limit germination success: the drying out of the forest floor before the roots of germinants reach underlying moisture reserves; and, particularly under hardwoods, the smothering of small seedlings by snow-pressed leaf litter and lesser vegetation. Kittredge and Gervorkiantz (1929) determined that removal of the aspen forest floor increased germination percentage after the second season in seed spots of both white pine and white spruce, in four plots, from 2.5% to 5%, from 8% to 22%, from 1% to 9.5%, and from 0% to 15%. Spot seeding requires less seed than broadcast seeding and tends to achieve more uniform spacing, albeit sometimes with clumping. The devices used in Ontario for manual spot seeding are the "oil can" seeder, seeding sticks, and shakers. The oil can is a container fitted with a long spout through which a predetermined number of seeds are released with each flick of the seeder. Strip cutting Harvesting cutblocks where only a portion of the trees are to be removed is very different from clearcutting. First, trails must be located to provide access for the felling and skidding/forwarding equipment. These trails must be carefully located to ensure that the trees remaining meet the desired quality criteria and stocking density. Second, the equipment must not damage the residual stand. The further desiderata are outlined by Sauder (1995). The dearth of seed and a deficiency of receptive seedbeds were recognized as major reasons for the lack of success of clearcut harvesting. One remedy attempted in British Columbia and Alberta has been alternate strip cutting. The greater seed source from uncut trees between the cut strips, and the disturbance to the forest floor within the cut strips could be expected to increase the amount of natural regeneration. Trees were cut to a diameter limit in the cut strips, but large trees in the leave strips often proved too much of a temptation and were cut too, thus removing those trees that would otherwise have been the major source of seed. An unfortunate consequence of strip thinning was the build-up of spruce beetle populations. Shaded slash from the initial cut, together with an increase in the number of windthrown trees in the leave strips, provided conditions ideally suited to the beetle. Underplanting DeLong et al. (1991) suggested underplanting 30- to 40-year-old aspen stands, on the basis of the success of