FOREST CULTURE IN IOWA. 557 



How to prepare cuttings. — Very early in winter, before severe freezing, cut in lengths 

 of about a foot. If the limbs to cut are plenty, choose them from three-fourths to one 

 and a half inches in diameter. Cut them at tiae lower end with a clean cut, sloping at 

 an acute angle, to facilitate pressing in the earth when planting. If sharpened ou all 

 sides, as is frequently done, roots are emitted less freely from the lower end. Tie in 

 bundles with willows, with the lower ends nicely evened, so that when placed on the 

 ground in the spring every cutting will touch the moist earth. Pack the cuttings in 

 a dry-goods box, with moist prairie soil, patting the box where it will not get too dry 

 or wet, and will not freeze. With the first warm weather of spring, cleau off a spot 

 under an old straw-stack, level the surface carefully, and set the bundles butt-end 

 dowu closely together upon the fresh, moist earth ; then cover them over with straw, 

 so as to keep them from the air. By the time the ground gets warm enough to plant 

 the base of the cuttings wiU be softened and calloused, and most of them will have 

 emitted small roots. 



Mark out your ground one way three feet apart. Plant alternately a row of small 

 growing corn with a row of cuttings. Put the cuttings in rows six Inches apart, at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees, using a clean, narrow spade, and press the earth down 

 firmly with the foot. Cuttings should be put dowu about the whole length. When 

 they start, allow only one sprout to grow. Cultivate carefully. The alternate row of 

 corn will nearly pay for the culture, aud the following winter the stalks will help to 

 hold the snow among the trees. The following spring it can be seen how the plants 

 stand in the rows. If the cuttings are prepared, kept, and set right, nearly all will 

 grow, and the surplus plants can be taken up and set in other ground. Allow the 

 plants to stand about three feet apart. If many have failed, transplant so they will 

 set right. As a rule, it is not best to transplant. A tree six years old aud never trans- 

 planted is usually much the largest. 



We may here remark that, in addition to the willows, the white and yellow cotton- 

 wood, Lombardy poplar, large aspen, silver poplar, and balm of Gilead may all be 

 propagated in this way, as noted in speaking of varieties. The instructions for man- 

 aging cuttings will, however, not be repeated. 



We may here also note that the red maple, white maple, ash -leaved maple, and bass- 

 wood may be propagated readily from two-year-old wood, put out in the fall. Cover 

 lightly over the rows, before cold weather, with straw or prairie hay. Rake this off aa 

 the plants start in spring. 



Evergreens for shelter-helts. — In Eastern Iowa, nearly all of the hardy evergreens may 

 be grown successfully, and form, beyond all doubt, the most perfect shelter-belts that 

 can be planted. But in the central and western portions of the State, north of the 

 forty-second parallel, evergreens even of the hardiest type need shelter; yet this is no 

 reason why they should bo ignored in the perfecting of ehelter-belts. For reasons 

 before noted, the rapid-growing soft woods are best for outside planting, aud are just 

 what is needed to give requisite exemption from wind-sweep to belts of pines or 

 spruces jilanted under their lee. 



For the portions of the State most in need of shelter-belts, the Scotch pine is, beyond 

 all doubt, the best evergreen for this use in the whole list. We can fully indorse the 

 statement of Prof. C. S. Sai'gent, who says : 



" The rapidity of its growth in all situations, and its economic value, make the Scotch 

 pine the most valuable tree farmers can plant for screens and wind-breaks about their 

 fields and buildings, and for this purpose it is recommended in place of the more 

 generally planted Norway spruce, which, though of rapid growth iu its young state, 

 does not promise, in our climate at least, to fulfill the hopes which were formed in re- 

 gard to it." 



This pine is specially partial to free circulation of air, growing quite feebly in 

 crowded positions; hence it will not do to plant it as closely as white pine, although, 

 as with other trees, it is best to plant with a view of thinniug out when the poles are 

 of size to be of practical use. We may here remark that the poles of Scotch and 

 white pine, cut in summer and stripped of bark, are very strong and durable when 

 nailed on posts for fencing. 



The white pine will succeed vastly better with outside shelter on west aud north 

 exposures, and will attain height fully as fast as the Scotch pine. Plant iu rows eigbt 

 feet apart, with plants four feet apart. The trees thus crowded will attain height 

 rapidly, and when the poles attain size for nailing on fence-jjosts, they will be straight 

 aud nearly uniform in size from end to end. 



The Norway or white spruce, coming next, may be planted the same as Scotch pine. 

 The white spruce is perhaps the most compact and beautiful, but the Norway is the 

 most rapid in growth, and is the most plentiful in the nurseries. 



Evergreens twelve to eighteen inches, of all the sorts here named, may be obtained 

 of leading nurserymen, who make seedlings a specialty, at very low rates. Taking 

 into account the first cost of plant, the loss from shipping, dying out, &o., the chances 

 for success, with the ordinary farmer, are too doubtful, except ou a small scale, for the 

 shelter of home buildings, where the addition to the landscape view, summer and 



