240 



SEEDING AND PLANTING 



12. THE AREA 



The size of the nursery necessary to produce stock for a definite 

 forest region bears no relation to the area of forest but rather to 

 the number, size, species, and character of stock required yearly 

 in its management. Where the regeneration is entirely by plant- 

 ing, particularly if large transplanted stock is used, the nursery 

 must be extensive, embracing from J to 3 acres for every 1000 

 acres of forest. 1 Where planting is used only to supplement direct 

 seeding and natural regeneration, small temporary nurseries are 

 adequate to supply stock for extensive forests. 



The circumstances affecting the conditions in one locality as 

 compared with another are so variable that no general rule can 

 be applied. Pettis 2 gives the following as the number of white 

 pine and spruce trees of various ages that can be produced an- 

 nually in a nursery of given size when allowance is made for the 

 paths between the beds but not for roads. 



Schlich 3 recommends that the nursery be about \ per cent of 

 the area to be planted annually when 2-year seedling spruce is 

 planted at 4-foot intervals. When the same species is pricked out 

 at the expiration of 2 years in the seedbeds and grown for an 

 additional 2 years in the transplant beds, the nursery should 

 contain from 2 to 4 per cent of the area to be planted annually. 

 Broadleaved species, such as oak, chestnut, walnut, beech, ash, 

 maple, and rapidly growing conifers like larch, require much 

 larger nursery space in proportion to the area planted annually. 

 Furthermore, the area required increases rapidly with the age of 

 the stock and the number of times transplanted. When 1-year 



1 Reuss, Hermann: Die. forstliche Bestandesgrundung. S. 107. Berlin, 

 1907. 



2 Pettis, C. R.: How to grow and plant conifers in the northeastern states. 

 (U. S. Forest Service, Bui. 76, p. 33. 1909.) 



3 Schlich, Wm. : Manual of forestry. 4th ed., vol. II, p. 201. London, 1910. 



