40 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



wanted to grow. If, however, you are not in the sprouting business, but 

 want some durable posts, railroad ties and the like, cut in the winter or 

 dormant season, as you would mature trees for timber. Hoop-poles should 

 never be cut when the bark will peel. 



INSECT DEPREDATION. 



All things have their parasites. Forest trees are no exception. Soon 

 after the box elders and ashes, and other favorites are leafing out, millions 

 of winged and crawling imps may be preying on their leaves, stems and 

 roots. The writer has successfully used Paris green, thinly diluted with 

 water and sprinkled on the plants. 



But one of the most useful of the insecticides, destructive to plant par- 

 asites, is the kerosine emulsion: Dissolve one-half pound of hard soap 

 (best whale soap) in four pints of water by boiling. When the soap is all 

 dissolved, remove from the fire and add eight pints of kerosine, and agitate 

 the whole briskly until a permanent mixture is obtained. This is best 

 done by using a force pump and pumping the mixture with force back into 

 the vessel that contains it. The emulsion may be diluted to the desired 

 strength and used at once, or may be used from when needed. The 

 strength ordinarily used is prepared by diluting one part of the emulsion 

 in ten or twelve parts of water, which makes the kerosine one-twentieth 

 part of the whole. 



PROPAGATING FROM CUTTINGS. 



During wet seasons, cottonwoods, willows, poplars, etc., can be raised 

 from their cuttings. They should be selected from well ripened and 

 smooth-barked wood, cut with a sharp knife from eight to ten inches long, 

 and not over half an inch in diameter. Never cut them when frozen. If 

 cut in autumn or during warm days in winter, heel them in, or pack in 

 damp straw or sawdust until wanted. If, just before planting, they are 

 any way shrunk, soak them in water until plump again. A good time to 

 cut and plant immediately is when the spring buds begin to swell. Sink 

 into the soil the entire length on a slant, and press the earth close, es- 

 pecially at the base of the cutting. 



SAFEST WAY. 



Wm. Somerville, of the Farmers' Institute, recommends cutting notches 

 in the bark of cottonwood, poplar or willow poles and laying them down in 

 furrows and plowing them under. They will sprout up at the notches, and 

 are less endangered by the dry weather. This is practical when the object 

 is to retain the trees permanently where the poles are planted. But for 

 healthfulness and durability, a tree from a well managed seedling is ahead 

 of the one from a cutting, for the seedling has more tendency to tap-root 

 itself, reaching down to the moisture and taking stronger hold. But the 

 Cottonwood's a second-class tree for the prairie at present. Col. John H. 

 Stevens says: " It will not live in soil strongly impregnated with alkali, 

 but when this element is eliminated by culture long enough, we shall have 

 better luck with this tixc. " 



