10 THE CULTIVATED EVERGREENS 



three feet is good. A rectangular spacing of three feet requires 

 4,840 trees to the acre. With a triangular spacing of three 

 feet between trees each way, the number is 5,584 to the acre. 

 In New York State, spruce transplants, four years old, can 

 normally be obtained from the nurseries of the Conservation 

 Commission, Albany, for around $4 a thousand. In other 

 states that maintain state nurseries, a similar arrangement 

 usually obtains. Specific information may be obtained by 

 addressing the State Forester. Directions as to how to plant the 

 trees may also be secured from the State Forester, or from the 

 State College of Agriculture. To give such assistance is a part 

 of the duty of these state officers. 



In a Christmas-tree plantation made by the Department of 

 Forestry of the Michigan Agricultural College, where four- 

 year-old Norway spruce transplants were used, the average 

 height of the trees in the plantation was six feet at the end of 

 six years. A few of the best trees averaged nine and one-half 

 feet for this period. The soil was a stiff clay, full of stones, and 

 wet in the spring. It was found "that if the trees grow faster 

 than one foot a year they become spindly. The best Christmas 

 trees are those which have grown rather slowly. They are 

 bushier and better shaped."* From such a plantation some 

 trees are cut each year, giving those left a better chance to 

 develop. 



A careful estimate of possible returns from Christmas-tree 

 plantations in New York State, made in 1919 by G. Harris 

 Collingwood, Extension Specialist in Forestry at Cornell 

 University,! showed for a ten-year period an expected net 

 annual profit of $68 an acre. Costs of nursery stock and of 



*Mich. Agr. Coll. Exp. Sta. Special Bull. No. 78. Apr. 1916. "Christmas Tree 

 Plantations," by A. K. Chittenden. 



fTwo articles in the Rural New Yorker, Mar. 1 and 8, 1919, "Christmas Tree 

 Farming," by G. Harris Collingwood. 



