146 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 



hole ; straighten it up ; replace the soil, not omitting to step your full 

 weight with one foot each side and near each tree before leaving it. This 

 is important, as it packs the soil close to the roots helping it to retain 

 moisture, and preventing the air from entering. One after the other, all 

 the kinds ne planted." 

 C. "T: nwhat?" 



B. " .^L you are now careless and lose all your interest in the subject, and 

 kee^^ uusy at something else, you will very likely leave the young things to 

 lo; : out for themselves. ^ The grass and weeds will choke them and your 



.Ltle enterprise will cause deep regret every time you think of it, and prove 

 the laughing stock of all your neighbors." 



C. "I am not that kind of farmer to drop a thing before I give it a fair 

 trial." 



B. "Then you will cultivate this land as you do your best cornfield, with 

 level culture, only continue to cultivate all summer." 



C. "What shall I do next?" 



B. " Keep on cultivating during succeeding years, as long as a horse can 

 get through the rows, perhaps four or five years or more, then the trees 

 will not need it any longer. From time to time you will very likely pick 

 up some other kinds of very small trees, or shrubs from the neighboring 

 woods and set them in among the others in the grove. If the cultivation 

 is attended to, and the land is not too wet, you will be surprised at the 

 rapid growth of the trees." 



C. " Why can't I mulch the ground all over with straw from the old stack 

 and save all further trouble?" 



B. "It not a good plan, and if you try it you will be disappointed. 

 Cultivation is much better, and with the trees near the house, it is but a 

 light chore to cultivate each time. If blackwalnuts, chestnuts, butternuts, 

 hickories, and oaks are desired in any places, plant the nuts where the trees 

 are to remain." 



C. "Thank you. I feel sure now that I understand the plan. It is so 

 much cheaper and easier than I had supposed, that I am going to plant a 

 grove. Even a small one started this year will be much better than a large 

 one long delayed and perhaps never planted." 



B. "In older states, like Massachusetts, farms already bring a better 

 price if they contain some suitable groves or lots of young thrifty timber. 

 As the grove improves with age, you will be reading every good thing you 

 can get on forestry. You will take a deeper interest in the work of the 

 State Forestry commission. You will want to see their last report and all 

 that may be issued in the future. You will have a good right to consider 

 yourself as one of Michigan's most enterprising farmers. You will be 

 planting for study as well as for producing a grove to shield animals or 

 growing crops from the severe winds. You will be an experimenter, a 

 pioneer in a good cause, and the longer you live the more will you see the 

 importance of a knowledge of forestry. 



" What is the custom in this neighborhood in regard to pasturing wood- 

 lots?" 



C. "Every one turns in his cattle, sheep, horses and hogs, or one or 

 more kinds of these animals. It affords some feed, and cleans out lots of 

 rubbish and makes the woods look like a park." 



B. " Yes, and it lets in the light and with the light grasses will slowly 

 creep in, affording more pasture, to be sure, but this will check the growth 

 of larger trees and small trees are not allowed to follow on to take their 



