AMERICAN SYLVICULTURE 



chestnuts. Possibly storage in the husk is preferable. Small 

 quantities are stored in bran. At Biltmore the planting of Cliest- 

 nut on abandoned fields is very unsuccessful, owing to enemies and 

 poorness of soil. Abandoned fields in Pisgah Forest often show 

 fair growth of chestnut — on better soil, especially on moister soil. 

 No experience is at hand relative to nut-plantations on good land 

 newly cut over. Chestnuts dibbled in at Biltmore to form a lower 

 story beneath Yellow Pine are always eaten by squirrels. 



C. AValnuts. 



Walnuts, both Black and \Miite, can be held over winter like 

 potatoes, without loss. Yet fall planting is better where squirrels 

 do not endanger the nuts. 



\Valnut has done well planted in furrows on abandoned fields 

 at Biltmore where soil was good, without cultivation; on poor 

 soil the weeds are choking it to death. Tlie dibbling of walnut 

 into woods just cut over has been badly handicapped in Biltmore 

 and Pisgah Forest by squirrels. Otherwise dibbling is the best 

 method in the woods. Possibly the attacks of squirrels might be 

 prevented by late-spring dibbling of nuts in sprouting condition. 



D. Birch. 



Birch seeds are very small, two-winged. European price for 

 Betula lenta, lutea and nigra, $2.50 per pound; Betula papyrifera, 

 62 cents per pound; for European White Birch (Betula alba), 8 cents 

 per pound. Germinating percentage is bad, especially if seeds are not 

 kept in loose storage. The soil requires little preparation for seed 

 planting. A large layer of mould must be removed. Seed can be 

 planted any time from fall to spring. The old foresters used to 

 plant the seed on the snow — so as to have the seeds washed into 

 the soil by the melting snow. 



The southern Birches, being solitary, might be planted in 

 irregular patches or trenches, or in places where the mineral soil 

 is exposed by the fall of trees whirled out of the ground with 

 stumps and roots. European Birch is very modest, thriving well on 

 dry soil. 



The seedlings are very hardy. They suffer, however, from 

 weeds, grass or leaves blown over them and depriving them of air 

 and sunlight. Betula lenta, at Biltmore, is apt to "damp off." 



E. Beech. 



Nuts appear every three to seven years in the woods. In 



Michigan, the fall of 1911 brought a full mast. The nuts ripening 



in October had better be planted at once after ripening, though 



much endangered in winter by mice. Storage over winter, possible 



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