28 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



trees are well established, all, except the most vigorous one, 

 should be removed. If any vacant places should be found, 

 they can be filled in with some of the surplus trees. Besides 

 controlling the species this system insures an even stand, 

 something which cannot be brought about by any other 

 except planting trees, and in many places it will be prefer- 

 able to that. It may do well if carried out immediately after 

 a fire has killed all the growth of trees, shrubs, weeds, or 

 grass. The greatest drawback to this method is, that if the 

 ground is covered with weeds, grass, or bushes, these may 

 suppress the young trees in their infancy. This objection 

 may be overcome by clearing the ground, as for broadcast 

 sowing, or removing for a foot or so whatever may be 

 likely to suppress them. 



As there can be no strip, spot, or broadcast sowing with 

 the seeds of nut-bearing trees, all such must be either 

 planted in this way or the plants grown in a nursery and 

 transplanted into the forest a proceeding which is not 

 always successful. Nearly all of them have a more or less 

 prominent tap-root and some will not submit to its loss 

 and thrive, and planting seeds of such where the trees are 

 to grow is much the best way, if no suppression by over- 

 shadowing growth is permitted. 



Growing Young Trees in a Nursery. The last method 

 to be considered is planting the seeds in a nursery and, 

 when the little trees are large enough, transplanting them 

 into the forest where they are to grow to maturity ; and it 

 is by no means the least important one. At first thought 

 this may seem to entail an unnecessary expenditure of 

 time and money. Experience, however, shows that there is, 

 in the end, economy of both. There are cases, as hereto- 

 fore shown, where other methods are best, but they are 

 exceptional. Planting in hills is the only one that can be 

 expected to approach it in satisfactory results; but if trees 

 be grown in a nursery until they are three or four years 

 old the period of slowest growth of nearly all the coni- 



