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cultivation, when so many better and more profitable trees can easily be 

 obtained. 



RAISING FOREST TREES FROM SEED. 



In preparing seed-beds, a well drained, light, rich, sandy loam is best 

 for nearly all trees. Dig deep, at least eighteen inches, and prepare as 

 carefully as you would for a bed of choice vegetables. Plant in rows, 

 three or four inches apart one way, and two feet the other. It is of 

 great advantage to cover the surface of the ground, after planting, with 

 decayed leaves, in imitation of nature. By this mulching, the ground 

 will be kept moist, and thus facilitate the germination of the seed. The 

 seedlings should be transplanted in the nursery, when one or two years 

 old ; six or eight inches by three feet is the proper distance in the nur- 

 sery. It may, perhaps, be as well to plant the .seed in the nursery at 

 once, and save the first transplanting. 



Planting. — In a timber plantation, the proper distance that trees 

 should be planted from each other, must vary with the species and size of 

 the young tree. The medium distance for trees of four or five years' 

 grovvth, is four feet each way. It must be remembered, that many more 

 must be planted than can grow to any great size. The object is to plant 

 the trees so close that they will mutually afi'ord protection to each other 

 from the sun and storm. They must be thinned out from time to time, 

 to give room for the most valuable, as they advance in size. 



Time for Transplanting. — All deciduous trees — those that shed their 

 leaves in autumn — may be removed any time when the leaves are ofif* 

 Early spring is generally to be preferred. Evergreens are more success- 

 fully transplanted, when the new shoots are just springing, which, in this 

 climate, is about the first of June. Choose a damp, cloudy day, if pos- 

 sible ; otherwise cover the roots from the sun with straw, moss, or mat- 

 ting. This precaution is indispensable when moving Evergreens, for if 

 the fine rootlets ever become dry, the tree will surely perish. 



Preparations for Planting. — Dig the holes before you procure the 

 trees, in order to avoid unnecessary delays, for the sooner the trees are 

 planted after they are dug up the better. Dig the holes for large trees six 

 feet in diameter, and eighteen inches deep — smaller ones in proportion. 

 Deposit the surface soil by itself, and if the sub-soil be poor, procure 

 enough of good to replace it, so as not to be under the necessity of using 



