CHAPTER VII. 



NURSERY WORK AND PRACTICE IN RAISING FOREST AND 

 ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



Nursery. This term is applied to a plot of land used for 

 raising plants that are intended for planting elsewhere for 

 their final growth. 



Soil and Cultivation. The best soil for a general nursery is a 

 deep, rich, reasonably level, retentive upland. It is customary 

 to grow most of the nursery crops in rows so that they may 

 be readily cultivated. The land should be plowed deeply 

 when the crop is planted and the surface soil kept loose and 

 fine during all the early part of the growing season or until 

 about the middle of July. If the land that has to be used for 

 a nursery is rather shallow, it should be gradually deepened 

 by plowing from year to year and if inclined to dry out, the 

 addition of large quantities of organic matter together with 

 constant cultivation will do much to remedy these defects. 



The cultivation of a nursery or young forest plantation, 

 provided the latter is planted in rows, should consist in 

 keeping the land stirred to the depth of three inches, thus 

 giving a dust blanket which will protect from drouth. After the 

 first of August much cultivation is likely to encourage a late 

 autumn growth which should be avoided, but a moderate 

 quantity of buckwheat or oats may be sown then and be al- 

 lowed to grow the remainder of the season to serve as a 

 winter protection to hold snows and prevent the heaving out 

 of the young seedlings by frost. 



GRADES OF NURSERY STOCK. 



Nursery stock of different kinds has come to be known by 

 such convenient names as seedlings, transplants, street trees, 

 forest-pulled seedlings, etc. 



Seedlings are young plants grown from seed that have never 

 been transplanted and are generally designated by their size 



