42 BULLETIN 479, U. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



WEEDING AND CULTIVATING. 



Weeding in seed beds is usually a hand operation because the 

 seedlings or rows of seedlings are too close together to permit the 

 use of hand cultivators. Weeds are most easily removed when the 

 beds are moist. They should not be allowed to become so large that 

 their removal will disturb the seedlings, but there is no necessity of 

 removing them when they are very small. Such work is slow and 

 tedious. The removal of weeds improves the growing conditions for 

 the stock by eliminating competition for light and soil moisture. 



Cultivation is not practiced extensively in seed beds at Forest 

 Service nurseries, except to check damping-off. Broadcasted beds do 

 not permit it; and where a good water system is installed it is not 

 essential for the purpose of conserving moisture. Watering is effi- 

 cient and cheaper. In heavy soils which bake and crust after water- 

 ing, however, cultivation is desirable. It breaks up the crust and 

 insures a better aerated and warmer soil, a condition which tends to 

 the development of larger and better stock. Where the stock is in 

 rows 6 inches or more apart, hand cultivators can be used. Im- 

 provised rakes with tines of 8d and 10c! finishing nails are some- 

 times used, but are not very satisfactory. Garden rakes and potato 

 hooks with some of the tines removed, or very small hoes, are quite 

 effective. 



WINTER MULCHING. 



Some soils are subject to heaving caused by alternate freezing and 

 thawing during the winter and spring. When this occurs plants are 

 liable to be lifted with the soil and a portion of their roots broken 

 off. Thin stands of seedlings and seedlings with shallow root sys- 

 tems are most subject to this damage. When the soil resumes its 

 normal position the plants remain sticking up above the beds or 

 else topple over. It is not a practicable operation to reset them in 

 the ground, and they are usually a total loss. Winterkilling due to 

 excessive drying of the tops of stock when the ground is frozen and 

 the roots unable to secure water is another source of danger. Where 

 necessary, then, precautions should be taken to guard against these 

 two sources of loss. 



For protection against heaving and winterkilling good, clean straw, 

 marsh hay, or leaves and twigs free from seed can be used as a mulch. 

 At the Monument Nursery oak brush, cut in August to retain the 

 leaves, gives splendid results for winter mulch on yellow pine. A 

 cover used with success on the Minnesota National Forest is burlap 

 of one thickness. After the first fall of snow of H inches, which 

 sifts in and around the seedlings, nearly covering them, the burlap 

 cover is put over the beds and secured in place by the edges of the 

 seed-bed frames, which are left on the beds over winter. This cover 



