﻿WHITE PINE UNDER FOREST MANAGEMENT. 53 



Transplant beds need thorough weeding during the summer, which 

 can best be done when the ground is moist. The transplants should 

 be watered well when set out, and again from time to time during 

 the first week or so. After that, however, they need not be watered 

 except during very dry weather. They need no covering during 

 winter. 



Two-year seedlings, 1 year transplanted, are probably best for 

 cut-over lands with a thin ground cover, or old fields covered with 

 low growth or grass. Younger stock, however, may sometimes be 

 used in such places, and where this is possible the expense involved 

 in the larger nursery and longer cultural operations can be saved. 

 For example, a portion of the seedlings are sometimes removed from 

 the seed-bed the spring after the seeds are sown and are transplanted 

 after one year, and then set out in the field. Those left may be 

 planted along with the 1-1 transplants directly in the field or they 

 may be transplanted one year before being set out. In the latter 

 case the final stock will consist of 1-2 and 2-1 transplants. For 

 planting in situations where the ground cover is at all dense 2-year 

 old seedlings, 2 or even 3 years transplanted, should be used. 



PLANTING. 



Seedlings for planting may be raised in the nursery, as just. 

 described, purchased from dealers, 1 or dug up in the woods. The 

 cost of producing 10,000 or 20,000 3-year-old transplants every 

 year will probably be close to $4 per thousand, and when good stock 

 of the same age can be secured at a price not too far above this, it is 

 usually better, in small operations, to purchase it. Wild seedlings 

 may be used, but as a rule their root systems are straggling, and the 

 plants lack the resistant qualities of transplants. 



Planting is best done in the spring, as soon as the frost is out of 

 the ground and before the buds of the young trees have begun to 

 grow. Since the time is thus limited to from four to six weeks, 

 planting should take precedence over nursery work. 



If the planting site is near the nursery, the stock may be carried 

 to it in the same way as from the seed to the transplant bed. Even 

 greater care should be used, however, to prevent the roots from becom- 

 ing the least bit dry. When the stock arrives at the planting site 

 it should immediately be "heeled-in." If it is purchased stock 

 and comes bundled, the bundles should be untied and loosened. 

 Heeling-in consists in placing the plants in a thin layer along the 

 sloping side of a ditch dug slightly deeper than the length of the 



1 A dangerous disease of white pine, the "blister rust," has recently been introduced into American 

 nurseries from Europe. When buying stock for planting, the seller should be required to guarantee it 

 to be free from this disease. The blister rust is discussed in detail in Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 206, 

 "The Blister Rust of White Pine," by Dr. Perley Spaulding. 



