DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY AND FORESTRY. 221 



roots of trees are unfitted by nature to stand the air. In the wind or the sun 

 or in dry air, or in the open air roots will live just about as long as a black 

 bass will live out of water; not much longer. Prepare some thin mud in a 

 pail, filling it a third full. In this mud place the roots of the trees, one sort 

 at a time. Of course you have staked or marked out your ground. Dig a 

 small hole with a spade and let the boy drop a tree in the 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 are planted." 

 C. "Then what?" 



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

 keep busy at something else, you will very likely leave the young things to 

 look out for themselves. The grass and weeds will choke them, and your 

 little 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 a farmer to drop a thing before I give it a fair 

 trial." 



B. " Then you will cutivate 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 is 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." 



0. " 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 larger 

 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 you will see the importance of a 

 knowledge of forestry. 



