I03 now TO GROW A FOREST FROM SEED 



This is nature's method of growing pine trees, and we find 

 that wherever the seeds find a congenial condition they do 

 well. A much surer method, however, and one requiring 

 more labor and painstaking, is to prepare the soil for the 

 seed. This may be very crudely done, or well done, as occa- 

 sion demands. The surest method, and often the quickest 

 and altogether the most satisfactory, is to plant the seed in a 

 well prepared seed bed where thev can be given the best of 

 care. 



The seed bed should preferably be ground that has been 

 used for some cultivated crop the previous season, so that it 

 will be free from witch grass and weeds. Fall plowing is 

 also recommended, as the ground will thus dry out and be 

 ready for planting earlier the following spring. The seed 

 may be sown in the fidl provided everything is in readiness, 

 but taking into consideration that more or less of them may 

 be destroyed through insects, birds, squirrels, freezing and 

 thawing, etc., and that equally good results are obtained by 

 early spring planting, the latter season would seem the 

 preferable one. 



The seeds may be planted in drills, or sowed broadcast. 

 For most of the hard woods the drill row is preferred, but 

 nurserymen largely practice sowing the pine seed broadcast 

 where the seedlings stand from two to four years before 

 transplanting. 



For acorns, walnuts, and the hard shelled seeds, planting 

 in the fall of the year is commonly practised. The action of 

 the frost and weathering conditions favor their opening and 

 hence assist germination. If they are not planted in the fall 

 the very hard shelled ones are layered in sand, and then sub- 

 jected to freezing and thawing during the winter, and in 

 the spring sifted out and planted as already recommended. 

 Layering is to take a box, or boxes, of convenient size, putting 

 in a layer of sand and then a layer of the nuts alternately, 

 using only enough sand to assist in retaining moisture and 

 keeping the layer of nuts apart. The whole should be well 

 wet down when putting in. The advantages from layering 

 in this way are that the ground can be well prepared in 

 spring to receive the seed, and that one may get a good idea 



