REFORESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 45 



a heavy or a light tool is used. The extra energy exerted with a 

 heavier tool can well be expended in performing more work, and 

 under most conditions met in planting it will be found that a tool of 

 medium weight, about 4 or 4| pounds, will be preferable to a heavier 

 one. Short-handled grub hoes, 2^ to 3 pounds in weight, *are now 

 being used successfully in some of the Idaho planting. 



OTHER EQUIPMENT. 



A very serviceable basket for field planting has been devised at 

 the Nebraska Forest. This is described as follows i 1 



The Besley planting basket is 12 inches wide, 20 inches long, and 8 inches 

 deep and made of light,, galvanized iron, having two handles, as a market 

 basket, and four short legs, consisting of stove bolts 1 inch long soldered in the 

 corners. The top is rolled over a No. 12 wire to give strength. For the inside 

 of the basket several thin quilted pads are furnished. These are fastened on 

 vertical wires at one end, and the trees are placed in layers between the 

 moistened pads. This provides perfect protection for the lower layers while 

 the upper layer is being used. 



A modification of this basket has been constructed at the Bessey 

 Nursery. The basket is made collapsible by using canvas instead of 

 galvanized iron. It is of about the same weight, but can be packed 

 about more readily than the first-described type. 



Bags made of waterproof cloth and equipped with shoulder or belt 

 straps have been designed in District 6 for carrying stock. The tops 

 of the stock protrude from the bags where they can be grasped by the 

 planter, while the roots are surrounded with wet burlap or moss. In 

 District 1 the specifications for a similar bag are as follows : 



Fourteen inches long, 11 inches deep, with a pocket 81 inches long and as 

 deep as the bag, sewed on the outside. Material of heaviest duck. Waterproof 

 lining on inside of main pocket. Two rings sewed on ends of bag for inserting 

 ^-inch rope to tie around waist of planter to keep bag from swinging. Adjust- 

 able shoulder straps sewed at one end of bag and fastened with snap at other 

 end. 



One of these bags will hold about 1,000 2-0 or 600 1-2 western 

 yellow pines. The plants are readily drawn from the small pocket 

 sewed on the outside, which holds about 100 trees. The main pocket 

 is used to carry the surplus. 



Common 2-gallon water pails, in which the roots are immersed in 

 water or covered with damp moss, are also used. The chief objection 

 to them is that on slopes they tip over very readily. 



The common wet burlap cover is not so good as the others men- 

 tioned, both because it rapidly becomes dry and because in pulling 

 out one seedling for planting the roots of others are very commonly 

 pulled out also and exposed. 



1 In American Forestry, Vol. XVIII, No. 5. 



