53 



nursery do not grow more than twice as thick as they are required in the 

 timber belt, we shall have no less than 21,600 acres or 33J sections, almost a 

 whole township to be planted in nursery for trees to plant that single county 

 — an amount too great for the nurserymen to undertake to supply, after they 

 have supplied the ornamental, Iruit and other trees, which now take all their 

 time. 



One hundred and twenty acres of thin or half nursery but thick forest is 

 required for every section ; the care of which can only be had by every 

 land-owner becoming his own nurseryman, and making the nursery the iden- 

 tical strip of land on which the trees are to remain. There they should re- 

 ceive a smooth, clean surface and mellow culture, a.nd they will thereby, at 

 least triple their growth while yet small, and sometimes six or eight fold 

 what they would do, if left in hard, uncultivated soil. It is not to be ex- 

 pected that the land-owner, who requires eight belts SJ rods wide, or four of 

 T-J rods wide, and each half a mile long, will start them all in one year, as 

 that would require him to plant thirty acres of trees ; but he could plant one 

 or two of these each year until all were planted. 



Trees which grow directly from seeds without transplanting, are thriftiest, 

 straightest and best. Transplanted trees, on the contrary, require years to 

 become well established, and to assume a vigorous growth ; and most likely 

 they have lost their upright shoot, from which it will take them years to re- 

 cover. They are more evenly grown from seeds than by either transplanting, 

 or allowing them to come up of their own accord, as they will do where large 

 trees have been cleared off. Another, and perhaps the greatest and best 

 reason of all foj; planting, by means of seeds, is the fact, that the planter 

 thereby secures just such trees as he desires most, without the shrubs which 

 are found such encumbrances in the native forests ; whereas some of the 

 most valuablfe of trees, such as the oaks, hickories, walnuts and others that 

 send long tap-roots deep into the soil can scarcely be grown otherwise. 



The man who wants trees for forests or belts, must plant good, sound, fresh 

 seeds, at the proper season, in suitable soil, and tend them for four years, as 

 well and faithfully as he tends his corn, and he will never repent the little 

 outlay. He must throw away the oft repeated expression, " I cannot wait," 

 with the more injurious one, ''There is time enough yet," and begin action 

 to-day by saving seed, preparing land or planting, and he shall not wait; for 

 the trees will cover the land designed for them, while others are waiting for 

 the result. 



PLANT THE BEST TREES. 

 In growing lorest trees something besides square feet of timber is to be 

 considered. One kind of timber is often worth many times as much as an- 

 other ; thus, a hundred feet of black walnut or cherry planks, are worth from 

 six to ten doUajs, while the same amount of pine may be had from two to 

 four dollars ; andpoplars would not pay for cutting ; and the fork of a wal- 



