FOREST PROBLEMS. 157 



acre, and if the work is carefully done in the spring, just before 

 the growth of young pine starts, there should be scarce any fail- 

 ures. In setting out the seedlings it is important that they be 

 kept in water or in damp moss from the time they are pulled out 

 until they are put into .the soil again. They must not ever be 

 allowed to appear dry. 



7. B. has land in Northern Minnesota covered with a mixed 

 growth of pine and poplar. The poplar is about twelve inches 

 thick, and overtops the pine, which varies from four to eight 

 inches in diameter and from .twenty to forty feet high. What 

 treatment would be best to secure an even stand of White Pine? 



Answer: While the poplar is hardly marketable at present, 

 yet it should be removed even if the material taken out hardly 

 pays for the expense of so doing. This should be done in order 

 to give the pine a chance to shoot upward. After the poplar is 

 removed the pine will probably stand for several years without 

 serious crowding, when it should be thinned to obtain best 

 results. 



8. A. has 2,000 acres of burned-over land in Northern Min- 

 nesota. This has quite a number of crooked and branching 

 seeding trees, probably sufficient to seed the land, but the soil is 

 so covered with raspberries, grass and poplar that the pine has 

 very little chance to grow. 



Anszvcr: The best way for giving a chance for the pine seed 

 to grow is to drag the land in good seed years as well as can be 

 with a drag made df oak branches or logs. This will tear up a 

 good deal of grass or bushes, and make a loose surface soil in 

 which the pines can take root; but the next year the weeds will 

 again start, and will destroy the pine unless they are held in 

 check in some way. This is probably best done by going over 

 the land in June and July, and cutting off some of the weeds 

 where the pines have seeded thickest. This practice should be 

 followed at least two years, after which but little attention of 

 this sort will be needed, as the pines will probably be able to take 

 care of themselves from then on. If the land can be used for 

 sheep pasture for one or two years, most of the weeds and bushes 

 will be destroyed, and the land will be left in improved shape 

 for the treatment outlined in dragging the land to get it into 

 good shape for a seed bed. In fact, without any further treat- 



