PLANTING FOREST TREES. 93 



rain and frost during the winter. At the proper time in 

 the following spring the nursery ground should be har- 

 rowed, then plowed and again harrowed, and then the 

 one or two-year-old plants are set in the proper one of 

 the two following ways : 



(1) NURSERY LINES FOR CONIFEROUS TREES. 



Beds are laid out of the same size as seed-beds, at most 

 six feet wide, in order to permit from four to five rows of 

 plants to be set from five to seven inches apart. The 

 rows are marked by a cord or chain, and the planting is 

 done by the short handled axe, as just described, after 

 the plants have been previously dipped into the clay 

 mixture. In these beds it is desirable to set but one 

 good plant to the hole. Watering immediately after 

 planting is necessary; but it should not be done close to 

 the plant, but at the second cleft. 



Careful cleaning and stirring the soil is a matter of 

 course. But the two operations should never be con- 

 tinued late in the summer, as they encourage the tree 

 growth too late in the season, and the wood thus made 

 does not ripen well, but will be killed by a strong winter 

 frost ; they should be entirely omitted the latter half of 

 the summer previous to the transplanting of the young 

 trees, in order that a strong ball may be secured, and the 

 taking out of the trees with balls in the following spring 

 facililated. 



(2) NURSERY LINES FOR DECIDUOUS TREES. 



The first thing to be determined upon before laying 

 out these nursery lines, is the decision of the question 

 whether we intend to raise only small trees, of from three 

 to five feet height, or larger ones up to twelve feet. In 

 the first case the plants are set from ten to twelve inches 



