PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS UPON TREErPLANTING. 45 



oak, the scarlet-oak, the pin-oak, and the two varieties of the red, called the red and 

 the gray. The black and the scarlet are common in Essex County, and are valuable 

 and very beautiful. The pin-oak is found farther south, but would, I think, grow 

 readily here. The red oak is a rapid grower, and a beautiful tree, but the least valu- 

 able of the oaks for fuel or timber. There is one species of the live-oak group — I mean 

 the willow-oak, which grows so luxuriantly in the States but little south of this — 

 that I have no doubt would grow here. 



The time for sowing the acorns is in the autumn, immediately after they have fallen 

 from the tree. It is very difiicult to keep the acorns through the winter, and it is 

 necessary only when they are to be transplanted to a distance. They should be placed 

 just below the surface. The plants must for some years be kept free from weeds. I 

 suppose the most profitable way of doing this is that practiced in the peach orchards 

 in New Jersey, which are for some years covered with crops of beans, potatoes, or 

 something else suitable to the soil. 



The first acre sowed or planted as a nursery will bear plants enough for many acres 

 of forests. As they grow larger they may be thinned out and transplanted ; and when 

 too large for that, may be gradually thinned for poles or for fuel. I suppose that, 

 either for ornament or for timber-fortst, it would be a great advantage to contiuue to 

 cultivate between the trees, until they cast so deep a shade that nothing would profit- 

 ably grow. 



If recently cleared forest-land is to be restored to forest, plowing may be necessary, 

 but probably not subsoil plowing, as the roots will keep the ground open and i^orous 

 by their own penetration. The thing to be principally regarded is the character of 

 the previous growth. Land ought not to be chosen which has already been covered 

 with oaks, unless the cultivator is willing to go to the expense of trenching to the 

 depth of two or three feet to bring to the surface unused virgin soil. 



It would be well to cultivate all the ditferent species, as different species are adapted 

 to different situations ; the swamp-oak and mossy-cup to moist land, the rock-chest- 

 nut to dry, rocky hills, the red to sandy, the white to clayey, the black and the scarlet 

 to hard and hungry soils. 



Perhaps it would be well to interpret "oaks" as including the oak family, and thus 

 taking the beech and chestnut ; the former for its beauty as a tree near dwelling- 

 houses, the latter for its great rapidity of growth, and for its value as fencing and 

 bnilding stufif. 



MODE OF TREE-PLANTING RECOMMENDED IN MINNESOTA. 



The following is the substance of an article published by Hon. Leon- 

 ard B. Hodges, of Saint Paul, relative to forest-tree planting in Minne- 

 sota :^ 



Kinds of trees to he propagated from, cuttings. — Sources of supply and cost. — The white 

 willow is most easily propagated from cuttings. The cottonwood, Lombardy poplar, 

 box-elder, and balm of Gilead may also be propagated in this way. The cottonwood 

 is especially valuable for prairie planting, as it grows rapidly and is hardy. The 

 Lombardy poplar has its merits, and the box-elder, besides growing rapidly, affords 

 a good fuel, and its sap may be used in making sugar. On the river-bottoms and 

 on the margin of the little lakes young trees may bo got in abundance. On the line 

 of the Mississippi and Lake Superior Railroad evergreens can be got by millions. 

 Young trees can be gathered on the river-bottoms, when the water is low in the fall, 

 at from %\ to $3 per thousand, and the seeds of the white ash, black ash, and box-elder 

 in the same neighborhood. Soft maple and elm seeds may be obtained on the margins 

 of many of the prairie lakes and streams in May and June, and the ash, «fec., in Octo- 

 ber. White willow cuttings must be mostly obtained from the southeastern counties 

 of Minnesota, and may be had, securely packed in tight boxes and barrels, delivered 

 on the cars, at $2.50 to $3 per thousand. 



Mode of gathering , handling, and planting tree-seeds. — Seeds may be gathered after the 

 first killing frosts in autumn, along the timbered streams and lakes, as also young trees 

 of one and two years' growth in abundance. The latter should be gathered and heeled 

 in by digging a trench on dry ground (where the water will not stand) and laying in 

 the roots and half or two-thirds the length of the young tree, and then covering 

 with earth till spring. The roots should be kept; moist until planted. They should be 

 exposed as little as possible to the sun and wind. The seeds of the ash and box-elder 

 should be planted in the fall, just before the ground freezes, in drills, upon ground 

 finely pulverized. These seeds usually hang on the trees till far into the winter, and 



1 Practical Suggestions on Forest Tree Planting in Minnesota. By Leonard B. Hodges. 

 Published by the First Division of the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, Saint 

 Paul, March, 1874: p. 20. 



