320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



so that no great amount of preparation was necessary to make this 

 area suitable for nursery purposes. 



The one on the south shore, containing 3.7 acres, is used for the 

 raising of coniferous seedlings. This area was originally covered 

 with a white oak and chestnut stand about fifteen years old, so that 

 a large amount of work, consistmg of clearing, grubbmg, plowing 

 and harrowing was necessary to prepare the area for nursery uses. 

 This work cost about $200 per acre. 



The nursery work, which consists of preparing the ground, sow- 

 ing the seed, caring for the seedlings by watering, mulching, screen- 

 ing and weeding the first year, and transplanting, watering, screening 

 and weeding the second and third years, costs $1.50 per 1,000 trees 

 for the first year and $1.60 per 1,000 trees for each succeeding year. 



Plantings. 



The seedlings, having been at least two seasons in transplant rows, 

 are now ready for their final planting into the field. Planting gangs 

 composed of from 25 to 30 men are employed on this work, 4 or 5 of 

 whom are engaged in the nurseries preparing the trees for the field, 

 which work involves taking the trees from the transplant beds, prun- 

 ing the roots, sorting, counting, puddling and transferring to the 

 field, while the remainder are engaged in the actual planting process. 

 The maximum rate of planting acquired by an experienced gang 

 under ideal conditions was 1,000 trees per man per nine-hour day. 



Spring plantings are made immediately after the frost leaves the 

 ground, and fall plantings before it enters. 



Previous to the fall planting of 1906 the general type of planting 

 was white pines, sj^aced 10 by 10 feet, with some hardwood filler, 

 making the trees 5 feet apart each way, The above-mentioned type 

 was abandoned in 1906 because of the almost complete failure of the 

 hardwoods, and solid white pine stands, the trees spaced 6 by 6 feet, 

 have been planted since that time. 



In order to have an effectual screen along the forested portions of 

 the shore of the reservoir, which would prevent the foliage from the 

 deciduous trees from being blown into the reservoir, three rows of 

 white pines, spaced 6 feet apart each way, and two rows of arbor 

 vitae, 2 feet apart, trees 3 feet apart in the rows, have been planted 

 on the back half of the 50-foot reservoir margin. The greater pro- 

 portion of the arbor vitas have failed, probably because of having 

 been planted in the field when too young (two or three years old) to 

 endure the severe exposure which prevails along the shores of the 

 reservoir. 



Improvement Thinnings. 



Under ideal conditions the trees require no care after having been 

 planted m the field; but experience has shown that in pasture or 

 brush land, where the comrnon gray birch grows naturally, and in 



