FOREST TREE NURSERIES 



377 



weak solutions of sulphuric aid — one 

 part in five hundred is recommended. 

 It should be applied several days before 

 sowing the seed until the soil is thor- 

 oughly drenched, and the treatment re- 

 peated after the seedlings come up. 



"Flats," or wooden trays, one foot 

 by three feet in size, and three inches 

 deep, with a hole bored in the bottom 

 near either end, offer a threefold ad- 

 vantage to the farmer or other person 

 who wishes to grow a limited number 

 of seedlings : 



( 1 ) The trays can be pulled out 

 from under the lath screen and placed 

 where a person can work on either side 

 of it in weeding, or. better still, placed 

 on a box or stand, breast high. Thus 

 the worker avoids the strain on the back 

 in bending over seed beds four feet 

 wide. It will also be practicable for the 

 farmer, on rainy days, to take several 

 flats into a shed or barn and weed them 

 under cover. One season's trial indi- 

 cates that by the use of flats, the pines 

 can be grown without the protection of 

 a screen, on the north side of a barn or 

 other building, where they receive the 

 sun during the early morning and the 

 late afternoon. 



(2) The work of uprooting and 

 packing the seedlings is practically 



eliminated. The root apparently at- 

 tains as great a length in the flat as 

 when it goes down into a seed bed a 

 foot or eighteen inches, but it takes a 

 lateral course a little before reaching 

 the bottom of the flat, so that at the 

 time of transplanting, all that is neces- 

 sary is to soak the contents of the flat 

 thoroughly and then scoop the seedlings 

 out by double handfuls. 



(3) In transplanting to the perma- 

 nent site from a home nursery no pack- 

 ing is necessary, since the flats can be 

 loaded into a lumber wagon, or if there 

 are more than twenty, on a hayrack, 

 and transported several miles in the hot 

 sun without injury. But the chief ad- 

 vantage is that when the seedlings are 

 old enough for transplanting they are 

 ready, without further preparation, to 

 be loaded for transportation to the 

 field, and if the ground for the planta- 

 tion is made ready in advance they can 

 be transplanted by two men on a rainy 

 day quickly and with a likelihood of the 

 best success. 



The flats are especially suited for 

 school nurseries, where each pupil can 

 have his own flat, and at the close of 

 school take it home where adequate care 

 can be given the trees during the rest of 

 the year. 



Table I— Location and operation of National Forest nurseries 



