44 TREE PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



As a rule, it does not pay to raise evergreens from the seed; but there is 

 a pleasure in success and profit with the pleasure. Almost any kind of 

 mould will do, but sand-leaf mould is preferable. Locate the bed where 

 mice and squirrels are not masters of the situation. Sow broadcast; sift 

 the covering on about an inch deep for the larger sort, such as the pines 

 and Norway spruce. Raise up side frame about six feet for air circulation. 

 Have portable latticed covers to shade or remove, as needed. Can be 

 made of lath or brush. Protect against bright suns both summer and 

 winter. Remove the shades after ordinary rains, and put back when the 

 bed is well dried off. A like treatment is necessary for evergreens trans- 

 planted from the forest. In warm and moist weather the seedlings are 

 apt to dampen, a peril that can generally be prevented by covering the bed 

 with a coating of sand. 



THINNING THE FOREST. 



Trees will thin themselves in due time. But, understanding nature's 

 laws, we can apply them, if wise enough, as aids, and sooner accomplish 

 the ends sought. With scarcely an exception, the owners of our native 

 woodlands cut and slash indiscriminately, without a thought as to effects. 

 In cutting trees for fuel or lumber, the reckless rule is, cut so as to get the 

 most immediate profit. Even if fires do not follow the ax, the wide gaps 

 made, open the way for the sudden ingress of scorching suns and sweep- 

 ing winds, drying up and tearing to pieces the remnant. That forest is 

 the same as ruined. Sad to relate, such is the common condition of the 

 old woods of Minnesota. Trees growing compactly side by side are com- 

 paratively tender, unfitted for sudden exposure that breaks the balance of 

 mutual support. If the object be to preserve a forest, and yet draw from 

 it supply for home or market, do not cut out over a quarter, or at most, a 

 third of the trees the first year; and this thinning must be judicious, cut- 

 ting here and there a tree, always with a view to improvement. Then wait 

 two or three years before thinning much more. The idea is to give more 

 room for root-taking and limb-branching, maintaining the continuity of 

 the forest arch or roof, the trees standing up symmetrically to grand heights 

 and dense foliage. 



ART OF PRUNING. 



Avoid everything set or stiffly artificial. Trees should be pruned to 

 healthy conditions, and beauty of form will naturally ensue. Ignorant 

 pruning is one of the unpardonable foes to a tree. Very frequently in- 

 deed the rule of thoughtless intermeddlers with nature's beautiful art of 

 self-preservation the branches are sawed off an inch or more from the 

 tree-trunk. It is impossible for nature to heal such wounds. Always 

 prune close to the bark. The roots of a tree are proportioned to the 

 branches. If then you saw off large live branches which nature cannot 

 heal over, the roots at once begin to die, and the rotting roots convey rot- 

 tenness to the trunk. The bungling pruner virtually stabs the tree to the 

 heart, for the stumps he leaves on soon rot, and convey the rotting ten- 

 dency downward as the rotting roots do upward. A severely pruned, or a 



