46 FARM FORESTRY 



Such a tree nursery could well occupy a few rows in the 

 vegetable garden where the young trees will receive care and 

 cultivation. 



COLLECTING SEEDS FOR PLANTING IN THE NURSERY 



The seeds of forest trees for planting in the nursery can 

 be purchased from seed dealers at small expense, but it is in 

 many ways better to gather the seed from the trees when the 

 seed is ripe and to keep it over winter for planting in the 

 spring. 



Seed can be gathered from trees in the open much easier 

 and faster than from trees in the woodlot, which bear seed 

 only on the upper branches. Seed from trees grown in the 

 open will produce as good timber trees as will the seed from 

 forest grown trees. Usually small seed must be picked from 

 the trees before it is scattered, while heavy seed can be gath- 

 ered from the ground after it has fallen. Seed should not 

 be collected until it is ripe and should be obtained from thrifty 

 trees of good form and without disease. Seed produced by 

 very young trees is usually not fertile and seed from the lower 

 branches is apt to be less fertile than the seed from higher 

 branches. The first seeds to fall are usually not as good as 

 those that mature later. 



The time when trees ripen their seed must be known. Some, 

 like the American elm, river birch, silver and red maple, 

 cottonwood, poplar and willow, ripen their seeds in the spring 

 or early summer. Seeds that mature early in the year will 

 not retain their vitality long, so the seeds of these species 

 should be gathered as soon as ripe and planted at once in the 

 nursery. By Fall the seedlings will have grown considerably 

 in height and many of them will be large enough for starting 

 forest plantings the following spring. 



Most other species of trees mature their seed in the fall 

 of the year. Such seed could be planted at once were it not 

 for the danger of their being destroyed by squirrels or other 



