PKACTICAL SUGGESTIONS UPON TREE-PLANTING. 49 



Rules of E. Fereand on evergreen culture (Nebraska). — 

 Suggested by teu years' experience as an evergreen-tree raiser, and 

 ten years as an evergreen-forest planter : 



1st. Never plant your evergreens in tlie fall of the year, but do it iu the spring as 

 early as yuu tau obtain the trees. 



2d. Do not set your trees in the ground deeper by an inch than they stood iu the 

 nursery. Use no manure of any kind in planting evergreens or larch, but let the soil 

 be mellow and friable, without lumps in contact with the roots. 



3d. Do not plant trees under two years old even for stocking a nursery, aud for the 

 garden and lawn give the prtference to trees one to three feet high. 



4th. Never dig deep among the roots of your trees, but keep the soil mellow and 

 moist at the surface by a light mulching of bruised straw or hay, that will prevent tho 

 weeds from growing. 



5th. Last, but not least, get your trees direct from a nursery, carefully avoiding trees 

 that are heeled in by peddlers iu the fall, because such are always killed at the root, 

 notwithstanding their green appearance ; and here allow me a little digresbiou. Give 

 your preference to home nurseries. You have men here engaged in the business who 

 have spent their life-time, judging what varieties of trees you could better plant, for 

 your prolit aud success. — (Fourth An. Report of Nebraska ^Siaie Board of Aariculture, 

 1873, p. 443.) 



METHOD OF CULTIVATION BY THE WINNER OF A PRIZE. 



A statement made by Hiram O. Minick, of Nemaha County, Ne- 

 braska, to whom a premium was awarded lor the cultivation of a grove 

 of not less than 1,000 trees, gives the following account of his method 

 of cultivation : 



The ground was plowed in the spring, the same as for a crop of corn, and crossed out 

 at distances of five feet by seven. The Cottonwood yearling trees were procured on a 

 sand-bar in the Missouri River in the fall previous, and heeled in during winter. By 

 selecting a spot on the sand-bar where the surface of the sand is but little above the 

 water in the river, the yearling trees can be pulled out with great rapidity, probably 

 at tho rate of a thousand in twenty minutes, the operation being similar to pulling 

 flax, and the trees can thus be taken up f»reserving their rootlets entire, thus securing 

 them in the best possible condition for transplanting ; and taken at this age they re- 

 ceive but little check in their growth by the operation. Part of my grove was planted 

 with the spade, the operation being the same as for a hedge. Another part of the 

 grove was planted by drawing a deep furrow with the plow, and dropping the trees at 

 the crossings of the furrows, the roots iu the furrow and the tops projecting out, aud 

 then cover by throwing ancther furrow-slice upon the roots and base of the stock with 

 a plow. This left tho trees leaning at an angle saCy of forty-five degrees, aud fearing 

 this position would be injurious to the trees, I took the pains to place some of them 

 carefully erect; but upou an examination of the trees after one year's growth no dif- 

 ference was perceptible in those left leaning and those straightened up, as they inva- 

 riably start their growth from a bud near the base of the stock and grow erect. Tho 

 portion of my grove composed of cottonwood contains about 3,000 trees, and was the 

 work of two men, a boy and team, one day planting. The ground was cultivated sim- 

 ilar to corn for two years after planting. This required one hand aud horse two days 

 each year to five acres of ground. The mapla portion of my grove was planted by pre- 

 jiaring tho ground the samo as above, and dropping the seed (which had been procured 

 from trees on the Nemaha River) in the furrow and covering with the harrow, and 

 cultivating as above. The seed ripens about the middle of May, aud is generally very 

 abundant. The following may be considered as a fair estimate of the coat of the grove : 



Hand and team one day procuring trees $3 00 



Two men, boy, and team employed in planting 5 00 



Plowing ground 5 CO 



Two years' cultivation of trees 9 00 



Total ^-22 CO 



TniEER- GROWING IN NEBRASKA. 



[From an article by J. W. Davidson, iu the Fourth Eeport of the State Board of Agriculture, p. 444.] 



* * * The best method of stocking our prairies with timber is to prepare the 

 soil precisely as you would if you were going to raise a large crop of corn. The quick- 

 4f 



