DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1933 135 



MlDHURST 



The conditions for seed bed work and the lifting of hardwoods in the 

 fall were very good, and the weather remained open until the new year. The 

 winter was mild with little snow so sleighing was poor during the winter season. 



Owing to the drastic cut in our appropriations, little transplanting, or 

 other work, was undertaken in the spring, except the lifting and shipping of 

 the trees. During the summer we had only sufficient men to keep the nursery 

 moderately free from weeds. The season itself helped us as it was the driest 

 since the nursery started in 1922 so the weeds did not make much of a showing. 

 The few transplants that were planted suffered severely as well as some of the 

 young seedlings. 



Fortunately, we had sufficient transplant stock that we carried over from 

 the previous year which will supply the demands for the 1934 shipping season. 



No new work of any kind was undertaken owing to the lack of help. 



(1) Nursery Operations 



(a) Fertilizers: 



A small quantity of barnyard manure was purchased at the beginning 

 of the season, but the amount purchased was small in comparison with other 

 years. 



The amount of black muck or vegetable humus taken from the swamp 

 was limited owing to the lack of good sleighing. The total number of loads 

 taken out amounted to 398. 



Sweet clover is used exclusively now, as our green manure crop. This 

 spring about twenty-eight acres were sown with this legume. 



The following artificial fertilizers were used on the seed beds: 



Acid phosphate 220 lbs. 



Blood Tankage 1,084 lbs. 



Bone meal '.'.'. 360 lbs. 



Rock phosphate 84 lbs. 



Total 1,748 lbs. 



(b) Seed: 



All seed, with the exception of some experimental seed, was received 

 from the extraction plant at Angus. This year some Herbst Brothers special 

 Scotch pine seed was used and the growth the first year was excellent. 



(c) Seed Beds: 



All coniferous seed, with the exception of ten experimental beds, was 

 sown in the early part of November. Sowing finished on the tenth of Novem- 

 ber. 



Germination was excellent in most of the beds. The white cedar and 

 white pine were rather poor. 



Damping-off was present to a very limited extent only, and losses from 

 this fungus disease were small. 



During the extremely hot dry weather in July, some of our young seedlings 

 were scorched. The two year old spruce suffered the most. Our losses 

 amounted to about fifteen per cent in this stock. 



