12 REFORESTATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



TIME TO PLANT. 



Planting should be undertaken as soon as the frost is out 

 of the ground in the spring, the months of April and May 

 being preferable, in order that the young roots may get started 

 before the dry season sets in. Spring planting is preferable to 

 fall planting, as the roots having started will not be as likely 

 to be heaved out by the frost; although under certain con- 

 ditions fall planting is sometimes resorted to, as in a case 

 where a piece of land is too wet to work in the spring, but 

 becomes dry during the summer and fall. The time for fall 

 planting depends largely on the season. The months of Sep- 

 tember and October are usually best in this State. 



Care of the Young Plantation. 



An ideal plantation requires very little care until it is old 

 enough to be thinned, which under ordinary conditions would 

 be at about the twentieth year; but preparation against pos- 

 sible disappointment and failure is as necessary in the matter 

 of trees as in the raising of an agricultural crop, and weed-trees 

 choke out a plantation in much the same way that witch- 

 grass chokes out grain. 



With the exception of old fields, described on another page, 

 waste land will, in a short space of time, develop hardwood 

 sprouts of questionable value; and even the old fields will occa- 

 sionally reproduce unexpected crops of gray birch and popple 

 seedlings, to the great detriment of the planted pine. 



Most plantations must, therefore, be brushed over, in order 

 that the young pine shall not be shaded out before it has 

 "topped" the less valuable species growing around it. Nature 

 has provided that, in the long run, the conifers will win in 

 the struggle for supremacy, on account of longevity and gen- 

 eral good health. But the struggle may last for centuries. The 

 desired result can be obtained in less time through the medium 

 of proper assistance on the part of man. The amount of cost 

 will depend on whether the hardwood brush is simply lopped 

 and left on the ground, or whether it is piled and burned. 

 The latter is the better and safer method, but where the fire 

 hazard is negligible the former is recommended. 



