OUTLOOK FOR FUTURE SUPPLY. 61 



forest. Because of the danger from squirrels and mice, fall planting 

 should not be attempted. The nuts should be kept over winter 

 between layers of sand and planted in the spring, and since the long 

 taproot makes transplating impracticable, the nuts should be planted 

 directly in the permanent site, and never in a nursery. The spacing 

 should be about 5 by 5 feet and two or perhaps three nuts should be 

 placed in each spot about 2 inches under the surface, or it might be 

 well to try a group mixture with a light-seeding species, such as 

 white ash. 



Care should be taken to plant only those species which are suited 

 to the soil conditions. On exposed situations or on dry or sandy 

 soils pignut is to be preferred, and even that demands a moderate 

 amount of fertility to produce timber of good quality. On moist or 

 wet soils big shellbark should be selected, and on fresh, fertile soils 

 either shagbark or pignut. The latter furnishes the better grade of 

 wood, but the vjalue of the nuts is a consideration in favor of the 

 former. A plantation of shagbark would begin to bear about the 

 thirtieth year, and from then on it should average scarcely less than 

 10 bushels of nuts per acre. Bitternut, nutmeg hickory, and water 

 hickory are inferior species and should not be planted; mockernut 

 has nothing to commend it over pignut; and pecan is valuable 

 chiefly only for its nuts. 



To secure the normally rapid growth essential to the production 

 of strong wood, the stand should not be allowed to become over- 

 crowded. Thinning should begin about the twenty-fifth year. 

 The crooked or defective trees and those which are being crowded 

 and have not room enough to grow should be removed. This will 

 yield from 2 to 3 cords of firewood and will leave, perhaps, 800 trees 

 to the acre. Eight or ten years later the thinning may be repeated. 

 This should yield about 3 cords of firewood and perhaps a few handle 

 bolts, and will leave, perhaps, 400 trees to the acre. At the end of 

 the next ten years, if the soil is fertile, it is barely possible that the 

 stand may be ready to cut, but since seedling stands grow more 

 slowly than sprout stands, it will usually be necessary to wait an 

 additional ten years before cutting. In this case another ten-year 

 thinning should be made, which should leave about 200 trees to the 

 acre, and should yield, perhaps, a cord of spoke or handle bolts and 

 2 or 3 cords of firewood. By the fiftieth or sixtieth year the stand 

 should be merchantable, and should then be cut and managed as a 

 sprout forest. 



In uneven-aged, mixed forest, where the clear-cutting sprout 

 method can not be used, hickory can readily be reproduced by the 

 selection system. In fairly open mixed stands hickory reproduces 

 well and forms clean, straight stems under the partial shade of older 



