8 BULLETIN 153, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The slit method has proved very successful throughout the region of 

 this report, both with hardwoods and with conifers. 



Direct seeding. — The method of direct sowing of seed in rows on the 

 planting site has been followed with much success. In a few cases 

 walnut seed which during the previous winter had not been properly 

 prepared by stratifying was sown in the spring with rather unsatis- 

 factory results. A portion of the seed sprouted the first summer, but 

 the larger part of it remained dormant in the soil through the follow- 

 ing winter and then sprouted. Such cases as this merely emphasize 

 the need for treating such seed before planting it. 



Broadcast sowing also deserves some attention. In Iowa one 

 plantation of green ash was started by broadcasting the seeds on 

 ground prepared by plowing and harrowing and then covered by 

 harrowing. The trees came up very thickly; after 17 years a sample 

 plot 50 feet square showed 135 living and 63 dead trees. Ordinarily 

 such good results could not be expected, but these figures show that 

 a very dense stand may sometimes be secured by broadcast sowing. 

 Similar results might be obtained with species other than green ash, 

 but success is not as likely as in the case of other methods of sowing 

 or planting. 



Planting of sprouted nuts. — A rather novel but very successful 

 method of planting black walnut was that followed by one planter in 

 Indiana. He buried the walnuts in a shallow pit during the winter 

 so that they might be subjected to the action of frost and moisture 

 before planting. Upon uncovering the nuts the following spring he 

 found that many of them had formed sprouts 3 or 4 inches long. 

 These were planted on well- tilled ground by scooping out a little 

 soil with the hands, a method similar to that of planting cabbage. 

 This method reduces the possibility of fail places in a plantation, 

 and may be used with species like black walnut, butternut, hickories, 

 and oaks, wherever the nuts sprout before the planter is able to set 

 them out. Sprouting does not in the least injure the quality of the 

 seed, although it may necessitate such a method of planting as the 

 one described. 



Furrow method. — Another method is to plant young trees in a 

 plowed furrow. This is rapid, and in good soil has proved successful 

 with such hardwood trees as cottonwood, maple, and ash, and also with 

 such coniferous trees as pine and spruce. It is especially applicable 

 in the case of cottonwood and willow cuttings of 1 or 2 year old wood 

 taken from old trees. 



Individual hole method. — This method, which has not been used 

 extensively, consists simply of digging a hole for each individual tree. 

 It is undoubtedly the surest method, but at the same time the most 

 expensive. 



