CHAPTER XVII 



ESTABLISHING FORESTS BY PLANTING (Continued] 

 1. PLANTING OPERATIONS: TECHNIQUE AND METHODS 



PLANTING is always accompanied by more or less injury to the 

 plant. Even under the most favorable conditions and with the 

 exercise of the utmost care, there is always some arrest of growth. 

 The chief aim to attain in planting should be to reduce the interrup- 

 tion of growth to the lowest degree possible consistent with economy. 

 This is necessary in order that the trees may become established 

 quickly. It is not sufficient that the plants barely live; they 

 ought to be handled in their removal from the nursery or field, in 

 transport, and in planting so that they quickly make new root and 

 shoot growth. By so doing, the danger from summer drought 

 and suppression by competing vegetation is much reduced. 



All well-established methods of planting are useful under special 

 conditions. In deciding upon the method to follow in planting a 

 given species in a given locality, the practitioner must be guided 

 primarily by the expense involved. He should use the method that 

 will result in a successful plantation at the least cost. Inexpensive 

 methods that give acceptable results with one species or in a given 

 locality may be totally unsuited for other species or in other 

 localities. 1 



The methods and technique pursued in planting white pine in 

 New England cannot be successfully followed in planting western 

 yellow pine in the sand hills of Nebraska. European methods 

 and technique cannot be blindly followed in the United States. 

 Each practitioner must select the method that seems best suited 

 to his particular conditions and modify it as circumstances require. 



2. Classification of Planting Methods 



A great variety of planting methods have been developed 

 to meet the varying conditions of site and planting material in 



1 Bates, C. G. and Pierce, R. G. : Forestation of the sand hills of Kansas 

 and Nebraska. (U. S. Forest Service, Bui. 121, p. 40. 1913.) 



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