SEEDING FORESr TREES. 75 



for general culture, but would advise seeding only in 

 nurseries to raise the material required for plantations. 

 Therefore, in the following, we will consider first the 

 beds upon which seedlings are raised, and then the 

 nursery-rows into which the seedlings are transplanted 

 and cultivated up to the time when they are to go to the 

 grove or place where they are to remain permanently. 

 However, after having given the instructions for seeding 

 a certain kind of forest trees upon seed-beds, we shall 

 briefly add the most usual and tried methods of using 

 these seeds in the general culture of forest trees. 



SEED-BEDS FOR THE PRINCIPAL FOREST TREES. 



(a) Seed-beds for Coniferous Trees. 



We select some place of good humus soil located on 

 forest ground, with a protected situation, break it up in 

 fall with the plow, divide it in beds of from five to six 

 feet width, and leave it untouched during the winter. 

 Should the soil be covered with heath-growth, or with a 

 heavy grass sod, the sward must, previously to the plow- 

 ing, be peeled off by the skim-plow, and entirely removed 

 from the field, for, if plowed under, there would be 

 formed in the ground, during the next year, such a thick 

 net-work of fibres that the seedlings, when taken out for 

 transplanting, would lose many roots and rootlets, these 

 being kept in the grasp of the dense matting, and there- 

 by broken. 



As soon as the ground in spring has become moder- 

 ately dry, the beds should be plowed once more and care- 

 fully harrowed. They are then ready for the reception 

 of the seed. Four small furrows are formed tlie whole 

 length of each bed by laying down a lath four inches 

 wide, and pressing it into the ground by walking to and 

 fro upon it. When taken up, a drill-row four inches wide 

 is formed, the bottom of which offers a smooth, level 



