ROREST -CULTURE. 229 
earth as soon as gathered, to keep them moist and well frozen during 
the winter, and plant them in the spring. The ground should be rolled 
as in the case of the maple. 
A writer in the Iowa Homestead advises to plant the seeds of forest 
trees as early in spring as the ground will permit, at a distance of four 
or five feet between the rows,:as convenience may suggest; and after- 
ward at the proper season to plant potatoes, corn, or beans between the 
rows for two or three years, till the trees get started. In this way the 
trees can be kept clear of weeds, and a valuable farm crop raised. Care 
should be taken in cultivating the crop between the rows not to disturb 
the trees. He planted eight quarts of the seeds of the soft maple in 
this way on new land broken up in June, 1868, and in August of 1870 
there were 2,500 trees two to three feet in height. 
In. planting nut-bearing forest trees for timber or fuel, the principle is 
pretty well settled that the seeds should be planted where the trees are 
intended to remain. The black and the white waluut, however, may be 
transplanted without very serious injury, but still they receive a shock 
which retards their growth for a considerable time. The chestnut, when 
transplanted, survives in some soils; in othersit dies. “The hickory and 
pecan are scarcely successful when transplanted. . 
A gentleman of Carroll County, Missouri, who has had large experi- 
ence in planting chestnuts, states that he covers the nuts with leaves or 
stable straw two or three inches thick, when he plants them in the fall, 
and puts on no dirt. If he plants in spring, he soaks them in warm 
water for ten days, changing the water every day. He afterward 
sprouts them in sand till the tap-root makes its appearance, and then 
plants them in rows at desirable distances, and covers them with earth. 
The drying of the nuts in winter, he says, will not prevent them from 
growing in the spring, when treated as directed above. 
Mr. 8. M. Rothamer, of lowa, a professional hortieulturist and florist, 
Says that the most successful way to raise a forest of conifers, or ever- 
green trees, which always need to be shaded for the first few years of 
their growth, is to plant deciduous trees first, and, two or three years 
after, a row of conifers between them. After the conifers have become 
large enough not to need shading, the deciduous trees may be cut out 
and used for fuel or other purposes. He advises that the seeds of coni- 
fers and nut-bearing trees be planted in shallow drilis in October, 
and covered about an inch anda half deep. If it is impracticable to 
plant them in the fall, they should be exposed in shallow boxes to the 
winter frosts, having been previously mixed with clean sand, and then 
planted the next spring as soon as the ground is dry enough to be prop- 
erly worked. Seeds planted in the fall usually produce plants two to 
six inches high before those of spring planting begin to germinate. 
Mr. D. W. Adams, of Waukon, Allamakee County, lowa, gives the fol- 
lowing rules for planting forest trees: 
1. Prepare the ground as for corn, and plant the seeds fresh from the tree. 
_ 2. Cover shallowly, and cultivate the trees in the-~same manner as corn, for three 
years, after which they will take care of themselves. Cotton-woods and willows are 
most easily grown from cuttings. 
3. Plant the seeds and cuttings of deciduous trees where they are to remain, thus 
saving one year’s growth and the labor of transplanting. 
4. Never attempt to plant a grove with large’trees taken from the woods, or in any 
ease without good cultivation. 
5. If evergreens are to be planted, it will usually be found cheapest to,buy them ot 
nurserymen, as more skill and patience are required to grow them than farmers usu- 
ally possess. 
_ Hon. Horace Greeley suggests that farmers in the Eastern States fence 
in a portion of their waste lands, such as rocky, craggy, naked hill-sides 
