124 ARTIFICIAL REFORESTATION 



should l)e followed by cultivation. Yet it should be noted that Dinner 

 departed from this policy in the Maritime Alps where the climate is 

 especially dry. 



The object is to produce nursery stock which will have: ^ 



"1. A complete well-developed root system, with regular and numerous rootlets. 



"2. A straight regular stem, a well branched and vigorous crown with lateral 

 branches proportionate to the age of the stock. 



"3. Fohage or buds complete and well-formed. 



"4. A healthy appearance, the stem and roots without any wound or suspicious 

 scars." 



Two Sample Nurseries, — A model nursery representing the best of 

 French nursery practice ^ is to be seen at the Barres Secondary School 

 for Rangers. The seed here is carefully stored. It is left in sacks no 

 longer than necessary and is frequently shifted so as to be thoroughly 

 aerated. As a general rule, the scales and debris are kept with the 

 seed, approximating the natural method of leaving the seed in the cones, 

 which is recognized as the best. The nursery consists of twenty-seven 

 plots, each 0.037 acre in extent, with two-thirds in cultivation and one- 

 third in paths. The work is very systematically arranged. Every year 

 one plot is sown, another transplanted, while the third furnishes the 

 plants for shipment after a year in the transplant beds. Each plot con- 

 sists of ten strips 33 feet long and 3.3 feet wide, separated by 2-foot 

 paths. Each strip has six lines of plants, single or double, separated 

 by 6.3 inches from axis to axis with a margin on the edge of 3 inches. 

 The sowing for most species ^ is done as early in the spring as possible, 

 beginning not later than March 15. 



An annual is usually sown and plowed in once every three years to 

 enrich the soil. A very simple sowing board is used, V-shaped (double 

 or single), and about 1 inch deep. This is merely pressed in the ground 

 in a straight line and the seed distributed along the bottom of the de- 

 pression thus made. 



The beds are protected against birds and rodents by small frames 4 

 inches high covered with 1-inch, or smaller, wire mesh. The frames 

 are covered with a few branches for protection against the sun for six 

 to eight weeks after the seed has germinated. Rodents have been suc- 

 cessfully destroyed by strychnine which was mixed with flour, placed 

 in a pan, and covered to protect it from the rain. Very little success has 

 resulted from treating oak acorns; the general policy is to kill the rodents 

 rather than to prepare the seed so that it will not be eaten. Stones 

 are often placed between the transplant lines to hold the moisture in the 



7 See Boppe, pp. 349-392. 



* From notes supplied by the director of the school. 



8 A species like silver fir would be sown in the fall. 



