MASSACHUSETTS TREE PLANTER 11 



an open space should be left, equal to the width of a lath ; 

 so that the completed screen affords a half shade. To raise 

 the screens above the plants, posts are required. They 

 should be long enough to keep the screens about eighteen 

 inches from the surface of the beds. Screens set on posts 

 high enough to permit a man to work beneath them can be 

 used if desired. If this is done some protection on the 

 sides exposed to the sun should be afforded the seedlings. 



As soon as the seedlings appear above ground, the screens 

 are placed over the beds on the posts and removed only on 

 cloudy days, after very wet weather, when it is desired that 

 the beds be dried out. In the fall, when the seedlings are 

 mulched, the screens may be laid on the beds to hold down 

 the mulch. 



White pine seedlings should be protected by screens, 

 during their first two summers in the nursery. If they are 

 allowed to remain a third summer in the beds, no shading will 

 be required. 



Ordinarily, in the spring of the third year, the seedlings 

 can safely be taken up and set out in their permanent loca- 

 tion. If they were kept longer in the nursery, the greater 

 part of them would have to be transplanted and given more 

 room. This largely increases the expense of raising the 

 stock, making it advisable in establishing commercial plan- 

 tations to take the plants from the nursery when only two 

 years old. Until the seedlings have attained that age, they 

 usually do not need to be transplanted. In some cases, if 

 the plants should come up too thickly in the rows, some of 

 them might have to be transplanted when one year old. This 

 would not be necessary, unless they stood closer than an 

 inch apart. 



The chief enemy of white pine seedlings is a fungous 

 disease known as " damping off." It attacks the seedlings 

 when they are only a week or two old and is to be feared in 

 wet, muggy weather. The disease shows itself in a wilting 

 of the young plant. To prevent its occurrence, the nursery 

 beds should be well drained and no water allowed to stand 

 around them. " Damping off" does not attack the seedlings 

 of broadleaved trees so frequently as those of conifers. 



