58 NEBRASKA STATE HOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



these young trees growing on hard pan where the soil had 

 all been scraped oil' for the einbankment. Near by were the 

 parent trees. Then 1 reasoned, these seeds fell in the fall. 

 The slush and sno^v covered them, they came up before the 

 gTound had time to dry off, and there they are. The next fall, 

 with thanks to good old mother Nature for the lesson, I 

 planted some seeds, about a pound to eight feet square, and 

 covered with a half inch of fine earth or sand, either would do. 

 And lo! the problem Avas solved. They came up with great 

 vigor early in the spring. Damping off is the great trouble 

 with raising evergreens. Often a man will have a fine stand, 

 and all at once they will be mowed down in a day. The 

 trouble is that the heat comes on before they have put on 

 their second set of leaves while they are yet tender. Now, 

 by sowing in the fall the plants get an early start and put on 

 the second set of leaves and thus are immune before the ex- 

 cessive heat strilces them. Use these precautions and your 

 success is sure. Do not allow birds or squirrels to interfere 

 with the buds. Do not allow them to dry while germinating. 

 In preparing the bed, take some clean ground, spade up the 

 earth a foot deep, rake it down fine, level it, and put in the 

 seed in rows, if you like. Put it in rather thick, cover with 

 half an inch of fine earth or sand. If you can't get seed in 

 the fall, then about the 15th of April soak it till it sprouts in 

 warm water, changed every twelve hours to keep it from sour- 

 ing. Plant as directed as soon as the sprouts begin to show. 

 When they come up they begin to go down, and the first year 

 they will have roots twelve to fifteen inches long. If they 

 are grown in the open, toughened to the heat of summer and 

 the cold of winter, you can plant them out when a year old. 

 If too dry in the spring, you can wait another year, but I 

 have had splendid success with yenrlings. When you dig, 

 drift under the bed and get the full length of the root, for 

 you need it all. Nature made no mistakes in furnishing it 

 at such a length to support these long needles. 



Dig a trench eight inches deep, perpendicular on one side. 



