842 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



YELLOW POPLAR FOR STORE AND OFFICE FIXTURES 



The wood is very satisfactory and much in detnand for all backng and hidden work in the manufacture of store and office fixtures. This 



illustration shows a set of tier bins for use in a large grocery. 



Unfortunately, but few of the seeds are fertile. No 

 one of our useful timber trees has so low a percentage 

 of fertility in its seed as the tulip tree. Old trees are 

 said to give a higher percentage of fertile seeds than 

 young ones, but even these cannot be counted on for a 

 higher rate of fertility than 10 per cent at best. In fact, 

 it is not safe to count on over 5 per cent producing a 

 plant. 



As must be seen, this lack of fertility in the seeds in 

 a veritable "lion in the path" of both natural and arti- 

 ficial propagation. Nor is that the only difficulty that 

 must be encountered and overcome. If the seeds, by any 

 means, whether gathered and stored or left lying on the 

 ground, shall become dry to any great e.xtent, they will 

 either fail to germinate or prolong that event for a year, 

 but more frequently the former. If artificial propagation 

 is undertaken the seeds should be gathered as soon as 

 ripe and either planted in the seed-bed at once which 

 would be best or stored in damp sand until spring, but 

 not allowed to become mouldy. Placing them where 

 they will freeze will be an advantage as tending to soften 

 the hard shell enclosing the small seed. If a long, dry fall 

 occurs and the seeds that fall on the ground become dry, 

 little natural regeneration can result. > 



But this lack of fertility in the seeds, or their failing 

 to germinate through becoming dry, is not the only trouble 

 which will be encountered in artificial reproduction. 

 While germination in the seed-bed may occur and the 

 plants grow well under lath screens for the first year 

 and reach a height of from 5 to 10 inches, the seedlings 

 should no longer be allowed to stay there but be removed 

 to the transplant bed or to the ground where they are to 

 grow to maturity far the best to the transplant bed, 

 however, for there they will get their root development 



greatly strengthened and will be better able to withstand 

 the adverse conditions which they will encounter in the 

 forest plantation for at best there are but few fibrous 

 roots and these are fleshy, soft, and easily broken. Trans- 

 planting directly from the seed-bed to the forest is seldom 

 successful. 



Although the seedlings may safely be removed to the 

 transplant bed and there make a good growth, the lia- 

 bility of failure to live or thrive when removed to the 

 place where they are to grow to maturity, is still another 

 danger to be encountered. As has been indicated, the tree 

 must be classed as emphatically light-demanding, but this 

 strong demand for light does not appear to prevail for 

 the first few years of its life, just how many is not known. 

 Observation shows that if the seeds are sown and germi- 

 nate among briars and low shrubs the plants will thrive, 

 and make great headway in overcoming their worthless 

 companions, and almost invariably succeed ; and it is 

 among such surroundings that nearly all natural reproduc- 

 tion takes place, but if by any means the seeds are sown 

 and germinate on bare, naked ground where the sun can 

 pour down on them all day long, the young plants do not 

 thrive as well, if they grow at all, as when growing in the 

 shade which the low bushes and briars afford them. A 

 case occurred under the writer's observation where an 

 open field on which grew only grass and a few insignifi- 

 cant weeds of little height was bordered on one end and 

 along its two sides by virgin forests that, at times, cast a 

 shadow over a border of the field, varying from 50 to 100 

 feet in width. On this end there was planted a jx^t about 

 200 feet wide with 2-year-old seedling tulip trees. Sub- 

 stantially all grew as well as could be expected for the 

 first year, but at the end of the fourth year from the 

 time of setting them out, practically all were dead except 



