AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 295 



spruce, chesntit, linden, hickory, bass wood, white wood, locust and fir may- 

 be suitable ; and on the less sheltered portions, the birch, ash, sycamore, 

 hornbeam, mountain ash and tamarack. 



The river banks are favorable for the growth of most varieties of tim- 

 ber, the poplar, willow, ozier, elm and hickory, according as they are more 

 or less dry. 



Situations contiguous to the sea-coast, or what are usually called mari- 

 time situations, are generally inimical to the successful growth of timber; 

 but where such are planted, the sycamore and beech will bear the sea- 

 brecKe better than most others, and make good nurses for other varieties 

 that may be attempted. In these situations, if the banks are high, the 

 best mode is to plant the face of it with poplars and elms, as they grow 

 rapidly, and thus afford a screen for the trees within. Stout, well-rooted 

 plants should be employed, of about eighteen inches growth, and placed 

 thirty inches apart. 



There are two modes pursued by planters in providing the trees. One 

 is by raising the plants in a nursery from the seed ; the other, by purchas- 

 ing the trees from a public nursery, in a proper state, to be planted out. 

 The former is by far the best plan, where the business of planting is to be 

 conducted on a large scale, as it is often difficult to procure the quantity 

 or variety that may be wanted at the proper season. Besides, all plants 

 succeed far better when they are planted as fast as they are removed from 

 the nursery. But for small concerns it is more advantageous to obtain 

 them from a nursery, as they can never be raised on a small scale so eco- 

 nomically as they may be provided in this way. 



When nurseries are attempted, the land should be good, as it is next to 

 impossible to raise luxuriant plants on poor soils. Dry soils, that are not 

 particularly light, will raise healthy trees of most varieties. A loam of 

 middling texture, inclining to sand, neither poor nor rich, twenty-four 

 inches deep, lying on a porous substratum, makes good nursery ground. 

 It is best that the soil should not approach the extremes of excessive or 

 meagre sterility, since all plants don't thrive alike in the same soil, and 

 an opportunity would thereby be afforded of placing each in that most 

 congenial to its nature. The site should not be too low nor too high, ex- 

 posed nor sheltered, that it may answer all purposes. No situation can be 

 more eligible for a nursery than ground that has been occupied for a 

 kitchen garden. The mellowness and pulverization afforded by a previous 

 growth of culinary vegetables bring land into the most suitable state for 

 the raising of young trees, besides it is at the same time cleared effectually 

 of vermin, such as grubs, insects, <fec. If I were selecting a location for 

 a, nursery, it would be a valley, surrounded on all sides except the south 

 by hills. The ground should be drained, subsoiled, ploughed, manured, 

 and limed at the rate of two hundred bushels to the acre of oyster shell, 

 then cropped with turnips, which being eaten off by sheep in the fall, will 

 reduce the land to fine condition for all sorts of tree seeds. As soon as 

 the acorns, walnuts, and other forest tree seeds fall, I would prepare a 



