224 SEEDING AND PLANTING 



Europe than in the United States. The author believes that this 

 is due primarily to confining the seeding to more favorable sites, 

 to better soil preparation, to better protection, to closer spacing, 

 and to the use of fresh, high-grade seed. During the past 50 

 years about one-fourth of the artificially regenerated public for- 

 ests in Norway and Sweden have been established by direct 

 seeding in small, prepared seed spots (Fig. 15). As a rule, the 

 seed spots are spaced at approximately 4-foot intervals in each 

 direction and the seed sown immediately after cutting or after 

 fires. They are usually cultivated to a depth of 6 inches in order 

 to get out the roots and thoroughly mix the organic material, 

 on the surface with the mineral soil. When a few trees are left 

 standing on the area to be seeded the regeneration is more success- 

 ful, due to the protection which they afford the soil and young 

 growth. 



The wide spacing of small seed spots so often practiced in the 

 United States and the neglect in filling blanks are not likely to 

 result in successful stands. Even under the most favorable con- 

 ditions a spacing of 6 feet is believed to be the widest spacing per- 

 missible. 



The ordinary garden rake has been extensively used in the 

 United States in preparing seed spots. It can sometimes be used 

 to advantage on areas that have been recently burned and are 

 practically clear of living vegetation. It permits only a superficial 

 working of the soil and should not be used in preparing seed spots 

 on compact soil or areas covered with surface vegetation. The 

 ordinary potato digger with heavy cylindrical teeth permits a 

 much deeper working of the soil and has been used in preference 

 to other implements on some of the National Forests. The grub- 

 hoe is the most useful tool for preparing small seed spots on soils 

 overrun with surface vegetation or filled with stones and roots. 

 The long-handled hazel hoe with wider blade is more useful on 

 ground without dense surface vegetation and without roots and 

 stones in the surface soil. The wider hoe is a hindrance rather 

 than a help on rocky soils. The ordinary rakes and potato diggers 

 are not so useful for making seed spots as the special tools with 

 broad, flat teeth used in European practice, as the latter permit 

 deep working of the soil and the easy removal of surface vegeta- 

 tion. The ordinary flat-tined spading-fork can be formed into a 

 tool well adapted for making seed spots under all ordinary condi- 



