NEW TOOLS FOR TRAXSPLAXTIXG CONIFERS. 

 By Wm. H. Mast. 



Owing to the increasing interest in forest planting with the con- 

 sequent demand for great numbers of trees for planting on private 

 and National Forest land there comes a pressing need for im- 

 proved tools and methods for producing and planting trees. 



For several years the writer was in charge of the Halsey Nur- 

 sery on the Nebraska National Forest where hundreds of thous- 

 ands of coniferous seedlings and transplants were handled an- 

 nually. To insure the most rapid and efifective handling of these 

 trees he was on the constant lookout for ways of improving the 

 tools and methods used. 



In the summer of 1907 he visited several of the largest com- 

 mercial nurseries in the middle west for the purpose of collect- 

 ing information in regard to methods of growing and handling 

 coniferous nursery stock. It was found that in some nurseries 

 large numbers of one and two year old conifers were pricked 

 out of the seedbeds and set in transplant beds with the dibble. 

 At some places trenches were dug with one side vertical, the 

 seedlings placed against the vertical side and the dirt shoveled 

 in against them, the proper spacing being effected either by the 

 laborer placing the trees with his fingers, or by setting them in 

 notches in a board on the surface of the ground at the vertical 

 side of the trench. Sometimes the trees were threaded into a 

 notched board two or three feet long and a narrow slat or lath held 

 against the front of the board to prevent them from falling out 

 while it was carried and placed on the edge of the trench. Large 

 trees were lined out into nursery rows by the slit method. 



At this time there was in use in the Halsey's Nursery a plant- 

 ing board of the German pattern. This board consisted of two 

 notched slats hinged together in such a manner as to allow one 

 slat to be drawn a couple of inches away from the other with a 

 sliding motion giving the operator space to thread the trees into 

 the notches after which he closed the slats together again to hold 

 the trees in position while the board was placed on the edge of 



