8 Circular No. 55, January, 1916. 



GROWING NURSERY STOCK. 



The growing of evergreen stock requires the attention of a 

 skilled and experienced nurseryman. The seed may be sowed 

 either in the fall or spring in well-prepared beds enclosed with 

 a frame of boards and wire netting and covered with a lattice 

 roof. The enclosure is to protect the seeds and seedlings from 

 birds and animals, while the lattice roof shields them from the 

 sun, wind, rain, and hail. Most of the evergreen seedlings, 

 that survive under natural conditions, grow in partial shade. 

 Very few of them can endure the full sunlight during the first 

 summer. During their first season the seedlings are subject 

 to several plant diseases, and it is this period that tests a nur- 

 seryman's skill in saving his stock. 



At one or two years of age they are transplanted to nursery 

 rows, where they are grown from one to three years, or until oi 

 suitable size to plant in their permanent location. 



The seeds of the broadleaved species are usually sown in 

 the open field in nursery rows, where the' stock grows without 

 being transplanted, until of sufficient size for permanent plant- 

 ing; but it is usually root pruned at one or two years of age. 

 The broadleaved seedlings are less liable to plant diseases than 

 the evergreen seedlings, and they grow with much more vigor, 

 attaining heights varying from one to three feet in a single 

 season. At one, two and three years of age this stock is of 

 suitable size for wood-lot and windbreak planting. 



PLANTING TREES. 



The successful result of any planting depends on three 

 factors: (1) the freshness and vigor of the trees; (2) the 

 proper planting in a congenial soil; (3) the conservation of 

 moisture by cultivation and the protection from injury by 

 live stock and insects. The difficulty that many tree planters 

 have experienced in growing evergreen trees is due to the 

 dead or dying condition in which the stock was received. Ever-- 

 green trees are very sensitive and a few minutes' exposure of 

 their roots to the air is fatal. All danger of such injury is 

 easily prevented if the roots are puddled as soon as the trees 

 are dug in the nursery and again when they are unpacked to 

 be planted. 



