PLANT PROPAGATION FOR PARKS. 



By F. Kanst, Chicago, III. 



^ p^HE subject of Plant Propaga- 

 tion for Parks is one which is 



, _i often brought before park offi- 

 cials for consideration, there 

 being so few parks throughout the coun- 

 try so well supplied with native trees and 

 shrubs that none need be procured. 



In the majority of parks, plants are 

 obtained by collection from the sur- 

 rounding country, or by purchase from 

 nurseries. In larger parks, where thou- 

 sands of plants are required, it is very 

 essential in order to obtain the best re- 

 sults, as well as from an economical 

 standpoint, that a park nursery be es- 

 tablished where such trees as the elm, 

 oak, ash, linden, negundo, birch, maple, 

 etc., may be grown on from various 

 young plants which can be purchased 

 from nurseries very reasonably and kept 

 growing in a healthy condition until 

 such time as they may be needed. Here 

 also shrubs and herbs can be propa- 

 gated from seeds and cuttings. Such 

 plants when in the park nursery rows 

 can be had at any time, thus saving 

 delay and loss, and valuable time, as 

 the seasons for planting are usually so 

 short. Another great advantage is, that 

 such plants are more easily established. 



A park nursery can furnish quickly 

 and in large quantities such varieties of 

 trees, shrubs and plants as will be mostly 

 used in the plantation — such as spiraea, 

 cormis, ligustrum, philadelphus, ribes, 

 symphoricarpus, lonicera, poplar and 

 willow, which with many others may be 

 readily increased from cuttings to be 

 obtained from plants already about the 

 park, or by collecting or purchase. A 

 place for these cuttings should be pre- 

 pared, preferably in sandy soil, early in 

 winter, then covered to a sufficient depth 



with spent horse manure, or leaves, to 

 keep the frost out. Cuttings from young, 

 well-ripened wood should be taken in 

 the winter and cut to about ten inches 

 in length, then placed thickly in rows in 

 the prepared ground. The covering can 

 be removed as fast as space is wanted 

 for the cuttings, and after they are in 

 place this covering can be put over them 

 again to prevent hard freezing which 

 would injure the vitality of the cuttings. 



The planting of the cuttings into the 

 nursery should begin when the heavy 

 frost is over, or about the 15th of April, 

 when most of the cuttings will have cal- 

 loused in their winter quarters. A suit- 

 able piece of ground for the nursery can 

 usually be found in some uncompleted 

 portion of the park. The ground 

 should be well ploughed and pulverized, 

 and ample provisions made for water. 

 Cuttings should be planted in rows run- 

 ning north and south, so that the sun 

 can penetrate between the rows, as they 

 make better plants and grow straighter 

 than if planted east and west. 



For park purposes cuttings may be 

 planted from 12 to 14 inches between 

 rows and from 6 to 8 inches in rows, or 

 about 50,000 to the acre. One man 

 with a good hand cultivator can attend 

 during the summer to 100,000 plants. 



At one year old cuttings will have 

 grown into fine plants ready for use in 

 the plantations, and when planted in 

 their permanent place at one year old 

 the cost is very little compared with 

 what it would be if the plants were 

 transplanted and allowed to grow 

 another year or two in the nursery. 

 They are easy to handle and only small 

 holes need be dug to insert the roots. 

 In plantations where the ground is soft 

 352 



