310 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



any use for it until this year. We have had it for seven or eight 

 years, but we always had rain enough so we did not need to use it 

 until this vear. 



GROWING EVERGREENS FROM SEEI>. 



CLARENCE WEDGE, ALBERT LEA. 



It is the usual practice to lay out the land in beds four feet wide, 

 with paths between them about a foot wide, and this is the plan that 

 I have adopted. I like to do this work in the fall, as it gives the 

 ground a chance to settle and assume a permanent shape before 

 planting time. When freshly made the beds should be three to four 

 inches higher than the paths, and if the land is on a slope subject to 

 w-ash in a heavy rain it is very important to provide ditches suffi- 

 cient to prevent any water from running over the beds, as any wash 

 would be very destructive during the greater part of the first season. 



With the exception of the red cedar, I sow all seed in the spring. 

 Whether early or middle or late spring sowing will be most success- 

 ful will depend more on the peculiarities of the season than with al- 

 most any other crop, but taking one season with another I think the 

 last week in April will be about the best time. 



There is no dainty more enticing to mice, gophers and squirrels 

 than evergreen seed. They will dig for it as soon as planted and 

 keep industriously at it even after the seed has sprouted and been 

 brought to the surface by the little seedlings in the act of breaking 

 through the ground. Hence, it will be wise to make a systematic 

 effort to poison all such vermin before sowing the seed. 



The posts or stakes to support the artificial shade necessary for 

 most species the first season should be set at this time. Any artificial 

 shade that shuts ofif half the direct rays of the sun will be sufficient. 

 Seedlings do not make a satisfactory growth under the shade of 

 trees, probably on account of the presence of the roots in the soil 

 under the beds. The fixed elevated shade, usually made of brush 

 placed about seven feet above the beds, and the movable low lath 

 shades resting on stakes about a foot high are in general use. The 

 elevated shade has the advantage of allowing perfect freedom for 

 work beneath it, and two years ago I would have said that it was 

 the only sensible kind to use. But the past season those portions of 

 our beds that were under the low shades gave us much the best 

 stand and a decidedly better grade of seedlings, and for next sea- 

 son's beds I shall use about half of each kind. 



As a final preparation for the seed, which is sown broadcast by 

 hand, I go over the beds with a common iron rake, making the earth 

 as smooth as possible and leaving what I find to be the best possible 

 surface upon which to make an even distribution. After sowing the 



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