ESTABLISHING FORESTS BY PLANTING 



415 



of the plant. These tools work best on loose or moderately loose, 

 sandy or loam soils free from roots and stones and covered with 

 little or no vegetation or litter. The most common form of plant- 

 ing hatchet weighs from 3 to 4 pounds 

 and has a wooden handle from 12 to 16 

 inches in length. The blade is from 3 

 to 3 inches broad at the bit and from 

 7 to 9 inches long. This implement has 

 been used to some extent in England 

 and on the continent but not in the 

 United States. Another form some- 

 times used in planting operations in 

 Germany weighs about 3^ pounds. On 

 loose soil free from stones and roots the 

 planting of small stock with this tool 

 can be done with great rapidity. On 

 the sandy soils of Prussia a workman will FlG 122. The planting ax. 

 set on the average a thousand plants per 



day, including the lifting and transporting of the stock from the 

 nearby nursery. Wagener 1 records the successful use of this tool 

 in planting millions of 1- to 3-year conifers, both in the open and 

 under an overwood. 



The notch or slit into which the plant is inserted may be made 

 with the ordinary spade or with special tools known as notching 

 spades. When the ordinary spade is used it is thrust vertically 

 into the soil to the desired depth and the notch enlarged by 

 moving the handle backward and forward until the opening is 

 sufficiently wide to insert the plant. One man is required to 

 make and close the openings and another to insert the plants. 

 The chief objection to this method of planting with the ordi- 

 nary spade is in the form of the opening. Under the backward 

 and forward movement of the spade it assumes more or less the 

 form of an hour-glass, i.e., comparatively wide at the top and 

 bottom and constricted in the middle. It is extremely difficult 

 to insert the plant properly and fill the opening afterward so 

 that the soil comes in contact with all the roots. In closing the 

 opening the spade is inserted 2 or 3 inches from the plant and 

 the soil pressed forward about the roots. The foot may also be 



1 Wagener, Gustav.: Der Waldbau und seine Forstbildung. S. 419. 

 Stuttgart, 1884. 



