1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



163 



PLANTING PINE SEED. 



Will you please inform me as to the best method 

 of planting pine seed, preparation of the ground, 

 season of planting and where they can be obtained. 



Gloucester, Mass., Feb. 21, 1868. e. l. 



Remarks. — In an article on "Sowing seeds 

 of Evergreens," about two years ago, we ad- 

 vised a correspondent who made inquiries sim- 

 ilar to the above, to go into any forest and in- 

 quire of Nature what course she pursues in 

 propagating the various trees that flourish so 

 nobly in her dominions. We shall there learn 

 that the oak and chestnut ripen their fruit in 

 the autumn ; the elm and maple in June ; the 

 sugar maple in August and September; the 

 yellow birch in July ; the white pine in Au- 

 gust, and the pitch pine some time during the 

 winter. The fall, then, is the time to gather 

 the burrs of the white pine, for field planting. 



Mr. David Alden to whom the premium for 

 the cultivation of forest trees, in Plymouth 

 County was awarded, in 1852, says the proper 

 time to gather white pine seed is from the 25th 

 of August to the 10th of September, and be- 

 fore the opening of the burrs. They should 

 be spread on a tight scaffold, away from mice, 

 and when dry can be threshed with a flail with- 

 out injuring the seed. We believe the seed is 

 also usually kept for sale by some of the city 

 seedsmen. The seed is sometimes planted in 

 the fall and sometimes in the spring. Mr. 

 Alden found that the seed sown in the fall veg- 

 etated too early and the plants were killed by 

 late spring frosts. He preferred spring plant- 

 ing. 



But these pine seeds placed on the impover- 

 ished soil of an open field, and'exposed to the 

 full glare of "the sun and the unobstructed 

 sweep of drying winds, are so differently sit- 

 uated from those planted by nature on a soil 

 of decomposing leaves, and protected by the 

 shade and shelter of the forest, that much 

 trouble is found, in practice, in raising a crop 

 of pine trees, on our worn-out land, from the 

 seed. 



In the Transactions of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Societies for 1856, we find the 

 statements of three applicants for the Ply- 

 mouth county premium on Forest trees. Mr. 

 S. Hayward planted 153 rods, in Oct. 1829, 

 in hills 5 feet 3 inches apart, each way, on 

 land sown to rye that year, putting four seeds 

 in a hill, and covering them one-fourth of an 

 inch with earth. Many of the seeds sprouted 



in the fall and died in the winter. The trees 

 were trimmed in June, 1855, and many of the 

 poorest cut out. In 1856 there were 708 trees 

 standing on this lot. On another lot of one 

 acre and 16 rods of grass land, which did not 

 yield enough to pay for mowing, he sowed 

 pine seed broadcast in Dec. 1840, upon the 

 grass. In 1856 there were 3019 trees in a 

 growing state. Another lot of two acres and 

 63 rods was sown with white pine seed, broad- 

 cast, and, as before, upon the grass, half in 

 in December, 1810, and half in March, 1841, 

 without any noticeable difference in their ger- 

 mination or growth. In 1856, 3726 trees were 

 growing on this lot. 



Mr. R. Sampson, another claimant, began 

 by planting seeds, but as they did not come up 

 well, he resorted to transplanting. Those 

 taken from the woods did poorly, while those 

 taken from the roadside, pastures, and open 

 fields, did well. He set some 8000 trees on 

 about twelve acres, and regarded the last week 

 in May or the first in June as the best time for 

 transplanting. 



The third claimant, Mr. J. Copeland, sowed 

 the seed on seven acres of rye land, — part in 

 February, and part early in April. Neither 

 sowing came up well, and he resorted to trans- 

 planting, using those from ten to twenty inches 

 high In transplanting, he said we gain from 

 five to six years in the growth, and with less 

 labor than in gathering and planting the seeds. 

 He found that two men could set 500 trees, 

 enough for half an acre, in a day. He re- 

 garded April and November as the best months 

 for transplanting. If set the last of May or 

 first of June, the dry weather that frequently 

 follows prevents their growth, if it does not 

 kill them. 



Mr. C. Morton of Kingston, commenced 

 transplanting pine trees in 1848, on land that 

 produced nothing but mullein and tinkham 

 weed. Of some 400 transplanted the last of 

 May not one in twenty died, while of those 

 transplanted by the same process in the Octo- 

 ber following, scarcely one out of twenty lived. 

 His method was to furrow the ground as for 

 corn, only wider, select trees from pastures, 

 &c., take them up with a shovel with consider- 

 able sod and soil about the roots, place them 

 in the furrow at proper distances, and haul the 

 earth around them. In one case his hired man 

 with one horse furrowed the ground, collected 



