3G0 



AMERICA N FORESTR Y 



plant, cutting its long, rambling roots 

 and forcing it to put out a set of thick 

 feeders close around the stem. When 

 transplanted it then has a large propor- 

 tion of its roots already grown and in 

 the ball of earth, and, when once in its 

 final site, these form the nucleus of 

 feeders which stretch far and wide 

 through the humus. 



State Forest Service, has gone about 

 as far as any man in the public service 

 towards the development of the system- 

 atic raising of millions of young trees, 

 and Prof. J. \\\ Toumey has made the 

 greatest advances in developing the com- 

 mercial raising of young trees for for- 

 estry purposes. The methods of lioth 

 are similar; the unit bed is 4'xl"i', rais- 



YouNG Oak Seedling Just Out of 

 Seed Bed 



Young Fir Seedling Tap Root Twelve Times as 

 Long as Stalk Above Ground 



American practice has tended towards 

 raising large quantities of seedlings in 

 as compact beds and as rich soil as 

 possible, transplanting them to beds on 

 larger sjjacing, and then settting them 

 out in the field as four-year transplants, 

 that is, plants which have had two 

 years' growth as seedlings and two 

 years as transplants. Such s})ecimens 

 are husky little trees, standing about a 

 foot high above the root collet, and tak- 

 ing a hole a foot in diameter by nine 

 inches deep to accommodate the root 

 spread. C. R. Pettis, of the New York 



ing about 7,500 seedlings, a rich, well- 

 fertilized soil is selected and cultivated, 

 the seeds are sown broadcast and very 

 thickly, tamped in with a flat rammer, 

 and over them is sprinkled a quarter 

 inch of sand. The wooden crate, which 

 is used so much throughoui the younger 

 days of the seedling, now comes into use 

 and is put over the freshly seeded bed 

 and closed in with loose laths between 

 the shade laths with paper tacked 

 around the sides. After a period of 

 some three weeks' germination the 

 ])a|)er and loose laths are removed, as 



