64 



THE CANADIAN HOUTICULTDRIST. 



closely planted, would grow tall and 

 straight, and when four to six inches 

 in diameter might be thinned to eight 

 feet apart, and would yield about 2,000 

 poles, some of which would make fence 

 posts, and the rest hop poles, the value 

 averaging at least twenty-five cents per 

 tree. This would produce $500 to the 

 acre, leaving 680 trees to continue to 

 grow until they become worth fifty cents 

 to a dollar per tree for various purposes, 

 such as fencing, vineyard stakes, &c. By 

 (Cultivating the young trees the growth 

 would be very much advanced, so that 

 at five or six years the first thinning 

 might bo made, and a handsome income 

 derived from the plantation, while, by 

 ordinary natural growth, twenty years 

 would probably elapse before any in- 

 come would be realized, and then only 

 a very small one. It is the same with 

 other trees — at eight years old a plan- 

 tation of chestnut timber has begun to 

 pay a good profit, in addition to the 

 whole cost, by the thinning of the trees 

 for fence posts and rails. While the 

 remaining timber is growing, the cut 

 stumps sprout again, and by the time 

 the former is ready to cut the latter are 

 prepared to occupy the ground, and so 

 an alternate growth may be procured 

 without any planting. A grove of large 

 chestnitt trees, with about forty trees 

 to the aero, has paid $120 yearly per 

 acre, for many years, from the fruit 

 alone, which usually sells at $3 a bushel, 

 while trees so grown yield much larger 

 crops than the wild trees ; so with 

 special kinds of timber, such as white 

 birch, that is grown for making thread 

 spools and toothpicks, and hickory, 

 that is in demand for light buggy tires 

 and bent furniture work, and other 

 timbers required for furniture, as bass- 

 wood for wooden seats for chairs and 

 for the bent dashboards of pleasure 

 sleighs, and birch and maple for the 

 frames of chairs and tables. The fact 

 is, one can scarcely go. wrong if he will 



only plant such timber as will thrive 

 in the soil and situation he can devote 

 to the culture, and this point is the 

 most important to be considered in 

 entering into the enterprise. The first 

 thing to be done is to prepare jt! 

 ground. This should be by 

 ing, if possible, or in some wa 

 breaking up the surface. If no 

 way can be found, this should be 

 by grubbing a place for the young 

 or the seed. Some kinds are not easilj^ 

 transplanted, and grow better when thre 

 seeds are sown where the trees are to 

 stand. Chestnuts, walnuts and hiekd 

 ories succeed better when the nuts aa» 

 planted in this way, and it is easy to 

 plant the nuts and loosen the surface 

 around them with a grub-hoe or a sp 

 if the ground is too strong, or too rouk,-, 

 or too steep for plowing. In plantii^ 

 nut-bearing trees, it is best to securr n 

 supply* of the nuts in the Fall, 

 plant them at once, if convenioiir, 

 otherwise, to bury the nuts in the 

 ground in a sheltered spot, and plant 

 them early in the Spring. Trees of 

 other kinds are best raised in ih 

 nursery. The seeds are sown in b( ^h. 

 in rows eighteen to twenty-four incliejj 

 apart, and when the young plants ai^e 

 a year old they are taken up, the ta* 

 root cut off, and are then planted in 

 their permanent places, in such a way 

 as that they may be cultivated as a cix)p 

 of corn should be, if the ground admits 

 of it. Evergreens — -as cedars, pines, 

 spruces and hemlocks — require special 

 care in the planting. The seeds should 

 be sown in beds of fine soil upon the 

 surface, and fine mold is then si: 

 upon them until they are covered 

 more than a quarter of an inch dee 

 The beds are then shaded with a scree; 

 of evergreen boughs and leaves^ 

 need to be kept moist by frequ 

 watering in dry weather. Whe 

 yeai- old the plants are very small, 

 may be pricked out from the seed 



