MAKING MONEY OUT OF FORESTRY 69 



operation to a sizeable figure. At least five to ten 

 pounds are necessary to sow each acre broadcast and 

 with seed costing from seventy-five cents to one dollar 

 and fifty cents a pound under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances the expense is not trivial. Another reason 

 why Nature's method is not always desirable is that it 

 is decidedly uncertain. Birds, squirrels and field mice 

 all eat most seeds with eagerness, and in many cases 

 also, the tender rootlet finds it impossible to enter the 

 soil if it is at all compact. 



As the result of quite a few years' experience, it has 

 been found cheaper and more successful in the long 

 run to plant healthy little seedlings or transplants six 

 feet apart. This requires 1210 trees to plant an acre of 

 open field. The plants ordinarily cost from three dollars 

 a thousand for seedlings to about six dollars per thou- 

 sand for transplants, and the total cost for planting 

 material and labor ranges from seven to ten dollars 

 per acre. 



Growing the Little Trees. The raising of the little 

 trees for setting out in artificial forests is a very inter- 

 esting business and one that is receiving more and more 

 attention in this country. Wild seedlings have been tried 

 both in Europe and in the United States, but owing to 

 the fact that they generally start their life in rather 

 compact soil their root systems are far smaller than those 

 raised in well worked and highly fertilized seed beds. 

 Small root systems mean poor resistance to drought or 

 insufficient food supply; hence artificially raised seed- 

 lings have proven far superior. 



For raising these seedlings a level fertile field, one 

 that has been tilled and well fertilized for years, is de- 

 sirable. An old garden would be ideal, but it is apt 

 to contain spores of the ' l damping-off fungus, * ' a disease 



