THE ART OF THE SECOND GROWTH 



K. Black Locust. 



The seeds ripen in fall and are easily kept over winter un- 

 injured by mice, birds or insects. To prevent seeds from lying 

 over, S. B. Green advises to pour boiling water over them just 

 before planting, a treatment causing many seeds to sprout at once. 

 The fleshy, oval cotyledons and the primordial leaves are not 

 pinnate. The tree is an exception to the rule of optimum depth 

 of covering (the depth of long diameter of seed) since it does 

 best when covered 2 to 3 inches deep. The seedlings are sensitive 

 to late frosts. The planting had better be delayed until the danger 

 of frost is past. The price of seeds, 5-10 cents per pound, renders 

 Locust seeds the cheapest seed obtainable since the germinating 

 percentage is high. The seedlings grow until late fall, when they 

 reach nearly two feet in height. At Biltmore, Black Locust is 

 planted into Oak coppice on raked patches, with the rake, and oh 

 abandoned fields in furrows 5 to 6 feet apart. Five pounds per 

 acre is enough. Plantations suffer from ground mice and, later on, 

 from insects (Cyllene, Ecdytolopha). Locust thrives on agricul- 

 tural soil; it is used in Europe to reforest the Hungarian prairies; 

 further along railroad cuts. Forest-grown Locust is superior to 

 field-grown Locust. 



L. Hickories. 



The nuts of the thin- shelled species (ovata and minima) can- 

 not be held over winter and require fall planting. Seed planta- 

 tions suffer from mice and squin-els, and especially from voles, 

 which bite-off the seedlings below ground, row after row. Bitter- 

 nut seems exempt from such attacks. The seedling, in the first 

 years, spends all its energy in developing a large tap root. The 

 plantations at Biltmore made in furrows on abandoned fields might 

 have succeeded better had they been cultivated continuously to 

 check the mice and voles. Hickory needs fertile, fresh soil; the 

 " Hickory flats " in the virgin forest are convertible into superior 

 farm land. Hickoria ovata, 1.3 cents per pound; Bitternut, Pignut 

 or Mockernut, 15 cents per pound. 



M. Linden or Basswood. 



Seeds falling in early fall are always poor. The ripe seed (in 

 bunches, attached to wingbracts) falls in late fall or winter. Linden 

 is very exacting and pure woods are very rare. Planted in the 

 forest, it serves but as an admixture. Seeds are planted in spring 

 on soil roughly prepared with rake or hoe. The cotyledon is 

 typically five-pronged, hand shaped. Tlie young plant is so sensi- 

 tive that cover overhead is strongly advisable. 

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