344 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



diameter of trees grown from the seed; they are also shorter lived. 

 With age the stumps lose their capacity for sprouting. To secure 

 best results, the parent tree should be cut close to the ground in 

 early spring, avoiding severe frost, and a sharp cut should be made 

 which will not sever the bark from the trunk. Not all trees bear 

 seed every year, and plentiful seed production, especially in a forest, 

 occurs, as a rule, periodically. The periods differ with species, cli- 

 mate and season. 



Not all seeds can germinate, and in some species the number of 

 seeds that can germinate is very small, and they lose their power of 



fermination when kept a few hours, like the willows. Others, if 

 ept till they have become dry, will "lie over" in the soil a year or 

 more before germinating. The same thing will occur if they are 

 covered too deep in the soil, provided they germinate at all under 

 such conditions. 



In order to germinate, seeds must have warmth, air, and mois- 

 ture. The preparation of a seed bed is, therefore, necessary in order 

 to supply these conditions in most favorable combination. In the 

 natural forest millions of seeds rot or dry without sprouting, and 

 millions of seedlings sprout, but soon perish under the too dense 

 shade of the mother trees. Man, desiring to reproduce a valuable 

 wood crop, can not afford to be as lavish as nature, and must there- 

 fore improve upon nature's methods, making more careful prepara- 

 tion for the production of his crop, either by growing the seedlings 

 in nurseries and transplanting them, or else by cutting away the 

 old growth in such a manner as to secure to the young self-grown 

 crop better chances for life and development. 



How to Plant a Forest. Forest planting and tree planting are 

 two different things. The orchardist, who plants for fruit; the land- 

 scape gardener, who plants for form; the roadside planter, who 

 plants for shade, all have objects in view different from that of the 

 forest planter, and therefore select and use their plant material 

 differently. They deal with single individual trees, each one by 

 itself destined for a definite purpose. The forester, on the other 

 hand, plants a crop like the farmer; he deals not with the single 

 seed or plant, but with masses of trees ; the individual tree has value 

 to him only as a part of the whole. It may come to harvest for its 

 timber, or it may not come to harvest, and yet have answered its 

 purpose as a part of the whole in shading the ground, or acting as 

 nurse or "forwarder" as long as it was necessary. His object is not 

 to grow trees, but to produce wood, the largest amount of the best 

 quality per acre, whether it be stored in one tree or in many, and his 

 methods must be directed to that end. 



As far as the manner of setting out plants or sowing seeds is 

 concerned, the same general principles and the same care in manipu- 

 lation are applicable as in any other planting, except as the cost 

 of operating on so large a scale may necessitate less careful methods 

 than the gardener or nurseryman can afford to apply; the nearer, 

 however, the performance of planting can be brought to the careful 

 manner of the gardener, the surer the success. The principles under- 



