THE FOREST NURSERY 307 



sown in pots and flats should be protected during germination and 

 the young seedlings should be shaded later in much the same 

 manner as in ordinary seedbeds. 



40. TRANSPLANT BEDS 



-* A transplant is a tree that has been grown one or more years 

 in the seedbed or as wild stock and later reset in the transplant 

 bed. Trees may be transplanted one or more times. As a rule 

 when used in silvicultural practice they are transplanted but 

 once. Transplanting is necessary when robust plants are desired. 

 Transplants have a more compact root system with more small- 

 fibrous roots than seedlings of the same age. They have a 

 shorter, stockier shoot and a more regular and symmetrical crown. 

 The greatest objection to the use of transplanted stock is its high 

 cost. Wagner believes, however, that the transplanting of Norway 

 spruce develops an unnatural root system and he advocates the 

 use of seedling stock although the loss may be much greater. 

 Fron states that coniferous plants should not be transplanted even 

 without any consideration of cost because untransplanted stock is 

 much better than transplanted when future growth and develop- 

 ment are duly considered. Although there is much controversy 

 regarding the use of untransplanted as compared with transplanted 

 stock,^J must be admitted that the latter is necessary for planting^ 

 adverse sites because of the much greater losses that occur when un- 

 transplanled stock is used. When the object is to produce large^ 

 strong plants with a full, spreading root system, they are trans- 

 planted two or more times at intervals of one or two years be- 

 tween each successive transplanting. Broadleaved species when 

 grown in the United States for forest planting are seldom trans- 

 planted but are transferred from the seedbed to the field when 

 one or at most two years old. Conifers, on the other hand, often 

 are transplanted. It is the author's belief that transplanted coni- 

 fers are used far more extensively than is necessary and that in many 

 localities where we are now using transplanted stock, robust seedlings 

 which can be produced at less than half the cost can be used with 

 equal success. 



Recent experiments by the U. S. Forest Service in Montana and 

 Idaho indicate that much less cost per surviving tree is incurred 

 by planting seedling pine on the better sites than by planting 

 transplants. Experiments conducted at the Priest River ex- 



