72 THE AMES FORESTER 



completion of a logging operation, it is advisable to plow a 

 furrow and plant in it. 



The slit method is used in planting which requires a crew 

 of two spaders and one planter. The spader opens the slit, 

 the planter puts in the tree and the spader completes the 

 operation by inserting the spade and forcing the soil against 

 the tree. The soil is then firmly pressed around the tree by 

 tamping with the foot. Five of these crews work together 

 and form a solid front under the supervision of one man or 

 crew foreman who constantly, walks back and forth behind 

 the line to see that plants are set properly. The stock is 

 wrapped in moss and burlap and carried under the arm. A 

 thousand trees per man per day is an average day's work. 



Some apprehension was felt as to whether the slit method 

 would prove practical in the clay loam soil. It was found 

 that by planting before the frost was out of the ground the 

 work progresses even faster than in the sand. 



The work of reforestation on the Minnesota National For- 

 est has been firmly established. There is no doubt about the 

 practicability of it, nor the success of the plantations already 

 made, and it is only a question of time before the entire area 

 will be covered with a tree growth that will be perpetuated. 



// the twenty-five million posts required each year for Iowa 

 fence-posts were set in one line and spaced a rod apart, they 

 would 'build a fence three times around the earth at the equator. 

 Their cost is nearly four million dollars. 



A clearing house for fence-posts has been established by the 

 Forestry Department at Iowa State College for the benefit of the 

 farmers. "Many farmers in Iowa want to buy native grown 

 fence-posts, but do not know where to buy them", says Prof. G. 

 B. MacDonald. "Other farmers have fence-posts to sell, but do 

 not know where to sell them". Several carloads of Osage 

 Orange posts have been listed. 



