40 PLANTING ON THE SOD. 



In this diagram, the average growth in diameter is shown by the heavy- 

 black line, and its amount may be known by reference to the right-hand 

 marginal scale. The mean depth of water falling in the diflerent months, 

 from April to August, is shown by the faint lines, and the amount is 

 given on the left-hand scale in inches and hundredths. 



The foregoing facts are not sufficient to afford a general conclusion. 

 There appears a tendency to wide range of difference in years of great 

 average growth, and a decided uniformity where the average growth is 

 low. There can be little doubt but that the uniform distribution of rain 

 through the growing months is favorable to wood growth, and that the 

 influences of one year may be carried forward into tbe next.^ 



Nearly allied to differences between years in the growth of wood is 

 the subject of seed-bearing, which, in many kinds of forest trees, comes 

 only in certain years, at irregular intervals, and according to laws that 

 remain till the present time unknown.^ 



PLANTING ON THE SOD. 



A mode of planting is sometimes practiced in Europe, in loose and very 

 damp soils, by simply setting the young trees upright on the surface and 

 turning the soil up over the roots, so as to form a little conical mound : 

 Covering with inverted sod, and, if convenient, with mosses or such other 

 non-conducting substances as the locality may afford. This mode of 

 planting appears to have been first described by the German forester, 

 Henry Cotta, who, in the fifth edition of his treatise on forest culture, 

 says : 



When tbe soil is very moist, we often neglect to dig holes for jilanting, but place the 

 roots directly upon tbe place marked and bank them over with soil taken from the 

 vicinity. This is indeed tbe only means of insuring success in plantations where the 

 soil is very deep and marshy. 



' Professor Gale undertook, from the rings of growth in a large cotton wood of native 

 growth, 26 inches in diameter and 115 years old, to determine the character of the dif- 

 ferent years for the last century, for tbe formation of wood growth. The section was 

 cut 24 feet from tbe ground, and tbe tree had grown in an exposed position in the val- 

 ley of the Republican, 25 miles west of Manhattan, Kans. 



Quite sviaU and uniform. — 18:i5 to 1844. 



^«ta«.— 1770, 1777, 1778, 1804, 1845, 1846, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854. 



Bather small— l8ob to 1864. 



Good.— 1785, 1795, 1796, 1816, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1865 to 1874. 



Very good.—l82b, 1828. 



Medium.— 1797, 1798, 1826, 1830 to 1834. 



Medium and uniform.— 1780 to 1794, 1805 to 1815, 1817 to 1824. 



Large.— 1772, 1773, 1774, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1827, 1829. 



The average annual growth for each decade (except 5 years in lirst period) was as 

 follows (decimals of an inch) : 



1769-1764 0.2 



1765-1774 0.135 



1775-1784 0.125 



1785-1794 0.1 



1795-1804 0.12 



1805-1814 0.075 



1815-1824 0.095 



1825-1834 0.126 



183.5-1844 0.075 



1845-1854 0.09 



185.5-1864 0.03 



1865-1874 0.1 



A green ash from the same neighborhood, 120 years old, showed similar irregulari- 

 ties, but from 1825 to 1834 very large growth. 



A backberry, 73 years old and 21 inches in diameter, showed an annual average of 

 0.14 for the whole iieriod, and by decades tbe following : 



1805-1814 0.14 11 1835-1844 0.1 || 1865-1874 0.130 



1815-1824 0.145 1845-1854 0.165 Best growth 1825-1834. 



1825-1834 0.19 || 1855-1864 0.145 || 



2 Many observations upon this subject have been made in Europe, but without es- 

 tablishing any general law. In the province of Bas-Rbin, in France, the beech bad 

 bore abundantly only six or seven years in half a century. The years 1843, 1657, 

 1862, and 1866 were fa'ir years, and 1822, 1828, and 1869 unusually abundant. Tbe pe- 

 culiar features of the last-named year were reported in the Eerue dcs Kaux et Forets 

 (1870, p. 20) for future reference. The year 1877 was unusually favorable to the laich- 

 »j id in Finland. 



