48 BULLETIN 47'.), U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



facilitates transplanting operations. After harrowing and grading, 

 all large roots, rubbish, and stones should be picked up and carted 

 away and the smaller trash raked off. The beds are then laid out, 

 preferably in some rectangular system and with a great deal of 

 regularity, but necessarily in accordance with what the water system 

 demands. Ordinarily the corners of the beds are marked with 

 stakes, and the beds are separated by paths from H to 2 feet wide 

 at the sides and from 2 to 4 feet wide at the ends. The paths at 

 the ends of the beds generally follow a branch of the water system. 

 A convenient size of transplant bed where sprinkling is practiced 

 is 6 feet wide and of any length up to 100 feet. Solid blocks may 

 be planted, particularly when the toavs run lengthwise of the beds. 

 Where subirrigation is practiced the beds can not very w T ell be more 

 than 2 feet wide in order to allow for frequent ditches. After 

 being prepared the beds, if not moist, should be sprinkled thor- 

 oughly. This settles the soil, facilitates the opening up of the 

 trenches which are to receive the seedlings, and insures a greater 

 success in the transplanting operation. 



AGE, SIZE, AND SPACING OF TRANSPLANT STOCK. 



The principal feature which determines at what age stock should 

 be transplanted is its size. It is slower to transplant very small or 

 very large stock than intermediate sizes. Small stock can be 

 handled only slowly and usually has to be left in the transplant 

 beds 2 years before it becomes large enough for field planting, neces- 

 sitating a transplant area extensive enough to accommodate 2 years' 

 output of seedlings. Large stock necessitates the digging of deep 

 trenches and wider spacing in the beds and should not be used for 

 transplanting unless the resulting transplant stock is particularly 

 well adapted for field planting. 



Coniferous seedlings averaging from 2 to 3 inches in height are 

 the most desirable size for transplanting. If possible, such stock 

 should be produced in 1 year. At the end of 1 year in the trans- 

 plant bed it is usually well enough developed for field planting. 

 Thus transplants suitable for field planting will be produced in 2 

 years, and this seems to be the end toward which nursery practice 

 should work. Older stock, however, will undoubtedly continue to be 

 superior under some conditions. 



At Forest Service nurseries it has not yet been possible to produce 

 in 1 year stock of all species large enough for transplanting. Some 

 species are inherently of such slow initial growth that they w 7 ill not 

 reach a suitable size; and some nurseries are located where the 

 growing season is so short that sufficient development is not reached 

 in 1 year. The following table shows the age at which seedlings 



