FOREST PLANTING FOR PROFIT. 25 



ally when there is every indication that timber prices will double 

 or perhaps treble themselves before that time. 



It was illustrated at length how tree seeds are collected, how 

 a sandy loam soil is selected for a nursery, and how the same is 

 laid out, ploughed, harrowed, etc., for raising young trees. The 

 seeds are soaked in Avarm w^ater, poisoned for preventing mice 

 from eating them, and then are carefiiUy sown in drills in a 

 nursery bed. Careful tending is necessary until the seeds ger- 

 minate and are one year old. The seedlings remain in seed beds 

 two years. They are then about six inches high and ma}" be set 

 directly into the field, or if larger, more stocky plants are needed, 

 the seedlings are transplanted into nursery rows where they may 

 remain one or two years longer. Views were shown illustrating 

 how the seedlings are taken up, transported to the land to be 

 planted, and how the men plant the same. Each two men of a 

 crew work together, one man making the holes while the second 

 man sets the trees. The details of how to properly and quickly 

 set these trees were shown. Mr. Borst states that by his method 

 each man employed in the planting will set more than 700 trees 

 in nine hours. One crew of sixteen men and a foreman have set 

 considei'ably more than 16,000 trees in nine hours. Under fair 

 conditions, using two-year-old seedlings, two men working 

 together ^-ill plant from three-quarters to one acre a day. Great 

 care is necessary to obtain good stock, as frequently poor trees 

 are delivered and the planting is correspondingly disappointing. 

 One dithculty in the way of the general tree planting is that 

 proper trees for forest planting are not readily obtainable at suffi- 

 ciently low prices. For small plantings it may be advisable to 

 transplant small seedlings, say from six to twelve inches high, 

 fi'om open pastures, but usuall}^ for plantations larger than five or 

 six acres, the additional cost for labor, etc., necessary to collect 

 and plant such stock is not compensated for. Also the success 

 of such planting is often not encouraging. Mr. Borst carried 

 his audience through the various stages in the develo]iment of 

 a planted grove and showed that there is no essential difference 

 in the planted forest and one sown by nature. The foresters' 

 artificial method of planting is necessary when the seed trees 

 have been destroyed or when the area has not been completely 



