208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. J. W. Manning of Reading. I will say, in regard to 

 maple seeds, about which you heard this morning from Col. 

 Wilson: Our red maple {Acer f^picalum) blooms in spring ; 

 it is one of the first red blossoms we see ; the seeds drop late 

 in May or early in June, they come up early in October. 

 The silver-leaf maple {Acer dasycarpum) blooms in May 

 and drops its seed in June. I have sowed the seed very late 

 in June, and in fourteen months from the time those seeds 

 dropped off, they produced trees seven feet high and an inch 

 in diameter. That is not uncommon. We have many hundreds 

 of those same seeds now growing. The rock maple {Acer 

 saccJiarinura) y which is the most popular maple known and 

 the most in demand, holds its seed until September. The 

 striped maple {Acer Pennsylvanicum) and the mountain 

 maple or cluster maple {Acer spicatum) also hold their seeds 

 until September. Then there are two or three European 

 varieties that we know about, — the Norway maple and the 

 English sycamore maple, for instance, — which hold their seeds 

 until September. They can be planted then, and will come 

 up the next year. 



It is often said that you must wait until June to transplant 

 everOTeen trees. I have handled everOTeen trees for a o-reat 

 many years. I find it is a good plan to begin to transplant 

 as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and I work away 

 into June sometimes. I have had success in every instance 

 when we have had a favorable season. We cannot guarantee 

 trees against extreme drouth ; but, if handled carefully and 

 skilfully, the probability is that nearly all will live, under 

 favorable conditions. I have recently been planting seeds. 

 I sowed a bushel of chestnuts a few days ago, acorns and 

 white-ash seed, and the seeds of various other seeds and 

 plants, for growing next year and afterwards transplanting. 



The call for nursery-grown trees, to extend forests, is 

 increasing every year. There is an increasing demand for 

 the white pine. They are very safely handled if you take up 

 a small ball of earth with them. They can be removed at 

 almost any season of the year, but it is safest to handle small 

 ones. There is a great difierence in the success of planters. 

 I once sent two thousand white-pine trees that came out of 

 the forest very small ; the buyer sent me word that he did 



