50 PRACTICAL PLANT PROPAGATION 



uniform temperature over the enclosed area in the Summer. These 

 windbreaks should take the form of neat, well-grown hedges, 6 feet 

 to 12 feet high. 



PREPARING THE SOIL 



To put the soil in the best possible condition for the planting 

 and growing of conifer seedlings one or more cover crops should be 

 plowed under. Cow Peas or Red Clover gives very good results. 

 The decayed vegetable matter keeps the soil from packing and 

 furnishes plenty of food for the young seedlings. 



It is a good plan, in fact it is very necessary, to thoroughly 

 cultivate the area set aside for the seed bed, for at least one, or 

 better, two years, before the sowing of the seeds takes place. Soil 

 handled in this manner will be practically free from weed seeds, 

 and this is a point of real importance in the production of seedling 

 conifers; it is impossible to produce sturdy young seedlings and a 

 crop of weeds on the same area. It is also a great deal cheaper to 

 remove weeds with a harrow and a two-horse team a year or two 

 in advance of planting than to weed the seed beds clean by hand 

 after the young seedlings have started to grow. Of course, there 

 will be much hand weeding necessary even when the soil has been 

 given clean cultivation for the entire two years before planting. 

 And right here I might add that it is mighty important in keeping 

 the tender young seedlings free from weeds that the work is begun 

 just as soon as the little seedlings appear above the ground. Do 

 not let the weeds get a start. Weeding, of course, is only a detail, 

 but is an important detail, it is only by giving the strictest atten- 

 tion to these seemingly unimportant details that we get the maxi- 

 mum results. It is seldom that any one great calamity happens; 

 it is usually a lack of attention to a number of small details that 

 causes failure. 



THE SIZE OF THE SEED BEDS 



The seed beds in most of the nurseries throughout Europe are 

 31/2 feet wide by 65 feet long. I have never been able to find out 

 why this size was uniformly adopted by the growers of Europe. I 

 infer, therefore, that the size of the seed bed is of minor importance. 

 However, it is necessary that you have a standard size for all beds 

 to facilitate the keeping of the necessary production records. I 

 have therefore based my operations upon a standard bed 4 feet 

 wide and 176 feet long. The four-foot width is made necessary 

 by the fact that the standard lath used for making the rack shades 



