THE SECKETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 399 



ECONOMICAL TIMBER PLANTING. 



In any business there is a good point gained when time and labor are so 

 adjusted that nothing is lost. This is very true in tree planting on a large 

 scale. AVhat might be accomplished by the proper management of help for a 

 dollar, often under mismanagement costs five dollars. Robert Douglass, of 

 Waukegan, 111,, knows how to plant trees economically, and this is how he talks 

 about it : 



The land is prepared as for corn, rolled and marked 4 by 4 feet with a corn 

 marker. The trees arc heeled in at convenient distances around the land to be 

 planted, or in some cases distributed in boxes; a wagon follows the planters so 

 that a bundle of trees can be handed to each tree holder at any moment. 



Our men work in companies of three each, two with spades and one holding 

 and placing the tree; the two men taking each a row, the tree holder stands 

 between the two rows ; the tree should be placed as near the point where the 

 marks cross each other as possible; to accomplish this the planter first strikes 

 his spade down vertically on the mark close up to and beyond the angle; he then 

 takes up a spadeful of earth so as to leave two straight sides to the angle ; while 

 he is raising the spadeful of earth the man (or boy) holding the trees inserts 

 one ; the planter drops the spadeful of earth, places his foot firmly close up to 

 the tree and steps forward to the next mark. In this way there is not a motion 

 lost ; the first stroke of the spade is needed to allow the spadeful of earth to 

 come up clean from the corner, and it is done in an instant, for the man 

 naturally carries his spade in the left hand, and when he takes his step forward 

 he simply strikes the spade down on the mark with its face to the right, draws 

 it out, and places it directly on the cross line close up to the corner, raises up 

 the spadeful of earth and drops it down again, covering the tree, for by the 

 time he has the spade raised as high as his knee the tree will have been inserted. 



An active, quick-motioned boy is as good as a man to hold the trees ; he can 

 attend to two men, but it keeps him busy. The trees are tied in bundles of 

 fifty to one hundred, according to size. After a little practice he will be able 

 to bring the tree to its place by an upward curving motion that will spread out 

 the roots as well as they could be spread out with the fingers. 



The best of spadesmen difier somewhat in their modes of operation ; some of 

 them in taking out the spadeful of earth incline the spade a little to the right 

 in raising it to give room for the tree to be placed, and never having the spade- 

 ful raised higher than the knee; others raise it as high or higher than the waist 

 and bring it down with great force, throwing it from the spade into the hole, 

 so that it packs the tree quite solidly. You must understand that the earth is 

 not inverted as in spading, but placed back exactly as it stood before, and when 

 it is well done, and the earth is in good condition, it looks as if the ground had 

 not been disturbed at all. 



By this mode of planting we average 1,500 trees planted for every man and 

 boy employed in a day of ten hours, 4,500 to a gang of three. Of course, larger 

 trees where one spadeful of earth Avill not make a deep enough cavity to hold 

 the roots will take longer. 



VANDALISM WITHIN THE LAW. 



Wra. Eobb, of Montreal, made some very pertinent remarks before the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Congress which apply in almost every town in these days of tele- 



