6 BULLETIN 153, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF PLANTATIONS. 



NURSERY STOCK. 



In choosing planting stock the planting site and the probable care 

 of the growing seedlings must be taken into account. With hard- 

 wood trees, such as ash, maple, locust, or catalpa, 1-year-old stock 

 is suitable. It costs less, is cheaper to plant, and is just as likely to 

 thrive as older stock. 



With coniferous trees, such as pine or spruce, 2-year-old seedlings 

 or transplants or 3-year-old transplants are best. Transplant stock 

 of conifers, when 2 or 3 years old, has a more fibrous and better 

 developed root system than corresponding seedling stock, and is 

 more likely to succeed than the latter, especially under unfavorable 

 conditions. Transplant stock should always be used on heavy soils 

 where for any reason cultivation is impossible and the young trees 

 must compete with a heavy growth of grass. This would apply, for 

 example, to cut-over areas filled with roots of old trees and to very 

 steep slopes. 



Tree seedlings, especially of hardwoods, can be raised on a farm at 

 low cost and with almost as little trouble as a bed of vegetables. 

 The seed may be purchased or collected locally and planted in drills 

 in soil prepared in the same manner as for vegetable crops. Stocks 

 thus raised can be left in the seedbed until it is convenient for the 

 owner to plant it. This plan avoids possible damage to the stock 

 during shipment from a commercial nursery or unforeseen delays in 

 planting the stock after it is received. One-year-old hardwood stock 

 varies in height from less than a foot to more than 4 feet. A tree's 

 height growth during the first year usually indicates its future vital- 

 ity. Thus the taller trees grown in the seedbed should be given 

 preference in planting. In the case of a plantation of black locust 

 in Indiana, where the planting stock was raised by the owner, the 

 smaller stuff was about 3 feet and the larger 7 feet tall after two 

 years' growth in the seedbed. The larger and smaller trees were 

 planted separately on similar sites. After four years the 7-foot seed- 

 lings were 20 feet high, while the 3-foot seedlings were only 12 feet 

 high. 



Advantage could be taken of this characteristic by planting the 

 more and the less vigorous trees in mixture, the shorter ones merely 

 as fillers to be cut out when the stand becomes crowded, the taller 

 trees to constitute the stand to be left until maturity. 



Conifers are not so easily propagated as hardwoods, and it would 

 ordinarily be best to purchase coniferous seedlings or transplants 

 rather than raise the stock at home. Conifer stock should be pur- 

 chased either from reputable nurserymen or from those State nurseries 

 which offer it for sale. If a fairly large number of young plants aro 



