42 Planting in Seed- Beds and Nurseries. 



grain should be thin, so as not to smother the seedlings that they 

 were intended to protect. 



158. Other writers prefer the first heat of spring, for the sowing 

 of conifers, excepting the silver-fir (Abies pectinata) , which should not 

 be kept over winter, as it quickly looses its life, and can hardly bear 

 transportation for a great distance. In great operations they gener- 

 ally divide the sowing between the fall and spring, and take the 

 chances for and against in each season. 



159. In the fall of the same year, or in the spring following, the 

 plants should be taken up carefully from the seed-beds and set in 

 nursery rows. The roots should not be exposed to the air longer 

 than is necessary, and those of conifers suffer much sooner than 

 those of the deciduous kinds. They will always bear longer exposure 

 in autumn than in spring, because the evaporation is then less, and 

 the circulation is suspended. For this reason fall-setting is advised 

 as preferable ; but local climate and circumstances may determine 

 one or the other time as the proper one, and in this, experience only 

 can decide. 



160. Young trees do best when they are transplanted once or 

 twice in the nursery rows, or when they have been simply loosened 

 and draw r n up, to be at once replaced. This should be done only in 

 damp weather. 



161. Finally, when of convenient size, and from two to five years 

 of age, the trees should be loosened with a spade-fork, drawn up, 

 and carefully transplanted where they are to remain. If they are 

 to be carried a considerable distance, they must be carefully packed 

 so as to prevent the roots from drying up, yet not so as to entirely 

 exclude the air. 



162. It will be seen from the foregoing that the management of 

 a nursery requires practical skill, and unless the proposed plantations 

 are extensive, it will generally be found best to procure the young 

 plants from nurserymen, rather than attempt to raise them from 

 the seed. This is more particularly true of the conifers, that are as 

 a rule more difficult to get started than the deciduous kinds. In ex- 

 tensive plantations, it is always preferable to establish nurseries near 

 the grounds to be planted, as well to avoid the expense of transporta- 

 tion and exposure of roots by removal, as to secure conditions of 

 soil that shall be as nearly as possible alike, so that the young 



