1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



Si 



White Pines, one-third of 

 a foot high, from open land 

 will transplant with almost 

 absolute safety if enough 

 earth can be retained on 

 the roots when planted. 

 White Pine will seed nat- 

 urally into abandoned 

 fields and pastures ; these 

 young pines will in places 

 grow so thickly as to de- 

 stro}' each other, and so 

 far apart in others as to 

 make them too limby. An 

 even stand, from four to 

 six feet apart, should be 

 secured by thinning out 

 thick spots and planting 

 open spaces. 



The best time for plant- 

 ing is late in the spring, 

 just before the plants push 

 into growth, or in August, 

 just after the new growth 

 is well ripened. In plant- 

 ing, special preparation is 

 not essential, although 

 plants will undoubtedly do better in a 

 plowed field. I have referred to the 

 White Pine alone in this connection be- 

 cause it is generally regarded as the 

 most reliable of our forest trees from 



Yearbook, 1899, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



WHITE PINE GROVE IN WHICH THINNING AND PRUNING HAS 

 TAKEN PI^ACE, PLYMOUTH, MASS.\CHUSETT.S. 



there is any, than to attempt to estab- 

 lish a new one. 



This can be done by removing unde- 

 sirable trees that are crowding more 

 valuable specimens and by thinning at 

 which we can secure a profitable growth intervals to encourage a more rapid and 

 at small cost. sj^mmetrical growth. At the present 



Where transplanting is not feasible time Chestnut is probably quite as \-al- 

 it is probably wiser to seed and wait for uable, if not more so, than pine, 

 a return than to go to the expense of Therefore this should be one of the trees 

 planting nursery trees, unless the area to be encouraged at the expense of other 

 is so large that one can secure the ben- varieties in a woodlot. In such a growth 



efits of wholesale rates and the services 

 of a skilful planter. The cost of seed- 

 ing is quite inexpensi^'e as compared 

 with planting, but one must, of course, 

 wait from three to five or six years 

 longer to get the same result that can 

 be secured from the collected trees. I 

 would not have it understood that I dis- 

 courage the use of nursery trees. My 

 principal ground for objection is that 

 we have not at present a sufficientl}' 

 positive assurance of protection from 

 fire or of an adequate financial return to 

 justify farmers in going to any consider- 

 able expense in making such planta- 

 tions. I think it is much wiser to de- 

 velop the existing forest growth, where 



one would secure the best results if it 

 were a pure stand of chestnut, in order 

 that it might be cut and utilized all at 

 one time, to give an opportunity for a 

 uniform sprout growth to follow cut- 

 ting. The ordinary Gray Birch is also a 

 valuable tree for certain situations, and 

 it is one of the few trees from which a 

 good crop of cord- wood can be cut in ten 

 or fifteen years. It will grow with White 

 Pine and give it suitable shade and kill 

 lower branches, without interfering seri- 

 ously with its development. 



At present our mixed forest growth 

 has little or no value except for cord- 

 wood, but even this on good land brings 

 a substantial return ; for such land will 



