FOREST TREE PLANTING. 135 



than 10 feet to each other, and should occasionally be 

 trimmed, while his neighbor asserts they should be planted 

 very thickly, letting nature do the trimming, and the fittest 

 survive ; others say that artificial trimming frequently kills the 

 tree, and always causes an oozing of the gum or sap, causing 

 dark spots in the lumber, which the tree will never outgrow. 

 If the limbs are allowed to fall from natural causes, the 

 wounds, if any remain, quickly heal, and lumber of a better 

 quality is the result. One lumber man asserts that if the tree is 

 trimmed when the sap is dormant no injurious efi;ect will fol- 

 low, while his partner advised me, in a sort of confidential 

 manner, that if the trimming is done when the sap is in mo- 

 tion the wounds will quickly heal without injury to the tree. 

 " Who shall decide when doctors disagree." A difierence of 

 opinion, also, is found to exist in regard to the age at which the 

 pine should be cut to yield the greatest profit. A gentleman of 

 my acquaintance, in whom I pl^ce great reliance, having a 

 grove 31 years old, found by careful experiment that the 

 growth of the last ten j^'ears equalled that of the first twenty. 

 A point, I am happy to say, on which all agree, is that the 

 young seedling pines should be carefully sorted before set- 

 ting, and those uniform in size and vigor should be set to- 

 gether. I would plough the land in the fall, and set the fol- 

 lowing spring. I would carefully assort the plants and set 

 those of the same size together, 10 feet by 8, using 543 seed- 

 lings to the acre. I would run a cultivator between the rows 

 twice a year, until the plants become well rooted and at- 

 tain the height of three or four feet. I would, also, with a 

 sharp knife, cut ofl:' one or two of the lower lateral branches 

 or shoots, always cutting upward, so that the bark on the 

 under side would not be stripped from the trunk ; this I would 

 do annually so long as any branches remained within my 

 reach. By ploughing I should secure to the soil whatever 

 organic matter in the shape of moss or grass might lie on 

 the surface, and by using the cultivator I should destroy or 

 greatly discourage any plant that might presume to subsist 

 on the scanty food of my seedling, and at the same time 

 •enlarge the absorbing power of the soil and thus furnish a 

 greater amount of moisture, so essential to the thrift of a 

 young tree in the early stages of its growth. By early and 



