208 



sand plains, however, and much of the 

 cut-over longleaf pine lands require no 

 preparation; on other longleaf pine 

 lands a single burn a year before plant- 

 ing may be enough. 



Tilling is important, particularly 

 when planting wild lands in the north 

 where the planting sites are usually 

 overgrown with heavy sod and dense 

 brush. By removing this vegetation, 

 competition for the young trees for 

 moisture, light, and soil nutrients is 

 greatly reduced. The cost of prepar- 

 ing the site will vary with density of 

 the vegetation and the kind of tilling 

 that is done. For large plantations 

 double-buster plows drawn by crawler- 

 type tractors are frequently used. Fur- 

 rows in which the trees are to be 

 planted are plowed at intervals to give 

 desired spacing of the trees. This type 

 of site preparation is efficient and eco- 

 nomical. Heavy tractor-drawn disks 

 have proved to be effective in prepar- 

 ing difficult sites of heavy brush, but 

 the cost is correspondingly greater. For 

 small or wood-lot plantations, scalping 

 spots with a mattock or grub hoe, al- 

 though laborious, is more practical 

 than plowing or disking because it does 

 not require heavy and expensive equip- 

 ment. 



The most frequently used hand 

 planting tool is probably the grub hoe 

 or mattock. On some sites it is used to 

 make a slit just large enough for the 

 roots. Where transplants or especially 

 well-rooted seedlings are used, how- 

 ever, it is usually better (even though 

 slower and more expensive) to dig a 

 hole in which the roots can be well 

 spread. 



Throughout most of the South where 

 the soil is sandy loam and relatively 

 free from stones and where slit plant- 

 ing is successful, a planting bar with a 

 10-inch wedge-shaped blade is used for 

 1 -year-old stock. The same is true for 

 seedling stock in parts of the Lake 

 States. Technique with these bars was 

 brought to a high peak of efficiency by 

 the Civilian Conservation Corps plant- 

 ing crews. Crack planting teams had 

 no trouble in setting 300 trees a man- 



Yearbool( of Agriculture 1949 



hour; even average crews set about 160 

 a man-hour. A man planting in holes 

 with a mattock does well to plant 65 to 

 80 trees an hour. 



Planting machines have now been 

 improved and are in use to reduce 

 costs, labor, and time. Two or three 

 men (one on the tractor and one on 

 the planter, or two alternating as 

 planter and follow-up man to replant 

 trees set too high) can set 1,250 to 

 1,750 trees an hour. Different ma- 

 chines have been developed for the 

 sand plains of the Lake States and the 

 bunchgrass-covered, shallow, sandy 

 loams with stiff subsoils of the southern 

 pine region. Some of the machines 

 work well in fairly heavy brush. None 

 has yet been adapted to hilly or rocky 

 land, however, or to areas cluttered 

 with logs and tops. 



Machine planting is becoming pop- 

 ular in the Lake States region among 

 farmers who have small fields which 

 they desire to plant to a productive 

 crop. The areas usually include worn- 

 out fields that have been cropped for 

 many years and require a minimum of 

 tilling to place them in shape for plant- 

 ing trees. Planting by machine is a rela- 

 tively simple operation. It involves 

 making a deep narrow slit in the soil in 

 which the tree is inserted as the ma- 

 chine moves forward. The opening is 

 closed and the soil firmly packed 

 around the roots of the tree by small 

 rolling packing wheels, which follow 

 closely behind the trencher. 



How closely to space the trees de- 

 pends on the purpose of the plantation. 

 The closer the spacing, the more trees 

 are needed to the acre and the more 

 they cost to produce, transport, and 

 plant. Closely spaced trees must be 

 thinned early, or they will crowd each 

 other severely and fall off in growth 

 rate. These facts have led to the use of 

 wide spacings, with trees 8, 10, 16, or 

 even 20 feet apart each way. Trees so 

 spaced reach merchantable size at the 

 earliest possible age, although their 

 quality and their total volume per acre 

 in the early years are often low. 



On the other hand, closely spaced 



