NURSERY PRACTICE IN PENNSYLVANIA 

 By George A. Retan 



At the beginning of the planting season of 1918 there was in the 

 Pennsylvania nurseries available stock for use of about 12,000,000 for- 

 est-tree seedlings. A comparative statement shows that this represents 

 a considerable increase over that of past years. In the last four years 

 the seedlings shipped from these nurseries had totaled as follows: 1914, 

 3,229,000; 1915, 4,465,000; 1916, 5,445,000; 1917, 5,345,000. 



The large advance in reforestation which this production has made 

 possible has resulted in the accumulation of experience which has been 

 very inadequately presented to the profession. Recent publications 

 have dealt fully and interestingly with the work of the Forest Service 

 and the general practice. It is not the purpose of this article to deal at 

 length with the operations more or less similarly conducted in all nur- 

 series, but rather to detail such work as represents a departure from 

 the commonly recognized routine. 



No doubt much that is peculiar to the nursery practice in this State 

 is a result of an aim which departs widely from that of the average 

 nursery. This is, briefly, the production of two and three year seed- 

 lings rather than transplants. Experience in most divergent growth 

 and climatic conditions on areas totaling over 10,000 acres has led to 

 the conclusion that the healthy, symmetrically developed seedling will 

 give as good results as the much more expensive transplant. The onlv 

 exception is that Norway spruce has occasionally to develoji with suffi- 

 cient rapidity under adverse conditions. In one case the writer urged 

 the use of one-year white-pine seedlings ; this was very successful, and 

 there is no reason to doubt the practicability of the use of one-year 

 white pine from fall-sown beds on cleared or |)artiall\- cleared sites. 



The seedlings shipped are quite a different product than that of the 

 transplant nursery with its densely crowded seedling beds. It is found 

 that a density averaging from 70 to 100 seedlings to the square foot 

 allows of a symmetrical dev-elopment of root, stem, and crown and 

 assures the greatest success. A density of over 70 to the square foot 

 leads to a decrease in the weight of the seedlings. While it is more 

 expensive to raise such seedlings, they are nuich cheaper than trans- 

 plants. Typical costs from Mont Alto records are as follows: 



7(51 



