xxin. 



ABOUT TKEE-PLANTING. 



I HAVE had so little experience in Tree-Planting 

 that I should have preferred to say no more about it ; 

 but letters that have reached me imply that the 

 ignorance of others is even denser than mine. For 

 the sake of those only who are conscious that they 

 know nothing, yet are not unwilling to learn, I ven- 

 ture a few timid suggestions with regard to Tree- 

 Planting. 



I. Ten or twelve years ago, I bought a pound or 

 more of Locust seed rather late in the Spring, scalded 

 it by plunging for a moment the little cotton bag which 

 held it into a pot of boiling water, and letting the 

 seed steep and steam in the bag till next morning, 

 when the seed was planted in rows in a newly broken 

 bit of poor old pasture-land. This was a mistake ; I 

 should have given that seed the richest available spot 

 in my garden, to say nothing of planting it as early as 

 April 20th. My locusts came up slowly and grew 

 feebly that year, not to speak of the many seeds that 

 did not sprout at all. Still many came up and sur- 

 vived, and my place is this day the richer for them. 



('34) 



