Notes and Gleanings. 231 



Method of Timber-Cultuke. — Every man knows, or ought to know, how 

 to plant trees ; yet not every one has learned the science of forest-culture. Too 

 little is written on this subject in this country, and less is known. It is a wise 

 saying, that necessity is the mother of invention. We have now come to that 

 extremity. Our forests are decimated. Our country is brought already to look 

 want squarely in the face. Already it is the playground of the hurricane and 

 long and scorching droughts. Already we transport lumber, for building and 

 mechanical purposes, hundreds of miles, and often more than a thousand, when, 

 with a prudent foresight and active economy, we might possess an abundant 

 supply in our home-towns and on our own farms. On every farm of a hun- 

 dred acres, at least ten acres should be devoted to a forest-plantation. This 

 ground should be in good condition for a crop of corn. Better plant when the 

 decaying sod which has not been exhausted by any crop will fertilize and favor 

 the growth of the newly-transplanted trees. 



Size of Trees. — They should be at least two to four feet in height, grown in 

 nursery before planting in forest form. 



First, Transplanted seedlings which have grown one or two years in a seed- 

 bed, and then set about a foot apart in nursery, with good culture, in tsvo years 

 will be in good order for a successful forest-plantation. These can be obtained 

 in some American nurseries at fair prices. Better for him who intends planting 

 a forest to procure his plants one or two years old, and set them in his own 

 ground, as above, where it will be convenient to remove them without exposure 

 to the ground to be planted. This should be reduced to a fine tilth with deep 

 culture, and marked with a plough three feet apart each way, the last furrow cut 

 quite deep. The furrows should cross each other as nearly as possible at right 

 angles. In the spring, April or May, when the soil is dry, and in good con- 

 dition to work, proceed to remove the young trees with care, securing the roots 

 from the rays of the sun or drying winds to preserve the moisture on the surface ; 

 and carefully set with the roots in a natural position, packing the earth firmly 

 with the hand around them. The first season, and till the roots have become 

 firmly fixed, great care must be taken that the young tree be not disturbed by 

 the cultivator, either by a whiffletree crowding the tops, or the teeth loosen- 

 ing the ground around roots, either of which would endanger the life of the tree. 

 Two or three years of good culture will be all that is needed ; and then the planta- 

 tion will take care of itself. The close planting will promote the upward growth 

 of the young trees, which, in six or eight years, should be thinned by removing 

 every alternate row ; the second thinning to be performed about the eleventh 

 to the thirteenth year, when the trees will be left six feet apart ; again about 

 the twentieth year, and then the thirtieth, when the trees will stand twelve feet 

 apart, or three hundred trees per acre. 



If a pine-forest be planted, they should be set twelve feet apart in rows, at 

 right angles, and two rows of the larch or other trees planted between each two 

 rows, and the plantation stand three feet apart as in the former case. Tiie pine- 

 tree is valueless for timber until it has arrived to a considerable age ; while other 

 timber, particularly the European larch, is valuable at all stages of its growth, 

 as it is almost imperishable. Whatever the kind of timber be that is set between 



