As the seed is very small it must be only slightly covered, 

 this is generally done by pressing it down into the ground by 

 stepping on it as it is dropped on the spot made with a hoe. 

 In some operations it has been found advisable to rake some 

 of the needles over the spots to act as a mulch when the 

 young trees have started to grow. This prevents the soil from 

 drying out too rapidly in dry years until the young trees have 

 developed a root system which is deap enough to not be af- 

 fected by the drying out of the top few inches of soil. About 

 ten seed are sown to a spot. Allowing twelve hundred spots 

 to the acre and ten seed to the spot this method will take 

 half a pound of white pine seed to the acre, a fifth of a pound 

 of Norway pine seed, a sixth of a pound of Scotch pine, and a 

 tenth of a pound of jack pine seed. At the average cost of 

 seed this method will cost for seed per acre $0.70 for white 

 pine, $1.00 to $1.25 for Norway pine, $0.40 to $0.50 for Scotch 

 pine, and $0.30 to $0.40 for jack pine. The cost of sowing 

 will range from $1.25 to $1.50 per acre. 



The third and most successful method so far found out at 

 the Cloquet station is to raise the young trees in seed beds 

 where they can be watered and protected by wire screen from 

 birds and rodents. The beds are generally made 12 feet by 4 

 feet for convenience in weeding and watering. The dirt in 

 them is well worked up and made as rich as possible without 

 getting it sour or too heavy. If it does get too heavy a dis- 

 ease is very apt to start in the stems of the young trees after 

 they have come up and kill them off. The beds are generally 

 sown in the spring about the time general garden seeds are 

 sown and the seed is covered about one-eighth to one-quarter 

 inch deep. The bed is then shaded with a lath cover with 

 the lath spaced about one inch apart. It takes the seed about 

 two weeks to come up. If the seed is good and conditions are 

 favorable a bed of this size, 12 feet by 4 feet, will raise 15,000 

 to 20,000 trees with less than a pound of seed to the bed. 

 This year at the forest station where only half a pound of 

 seed of Norway pine seed was sown over 2 1 0,0'00 trees were 

 raised in beds this size. The second year, the trees are not 

 shaded and are watered as little as possible to make them 

 hardy and drought resistant, so that when they are planted 



