SYLVICULTURE. 



Spruce, Fir and Hemlock should be planted three to five years old, 

 after previous transplanting in the nursery. Ash should be planted 

 six- years old when used in half swamps having luxurious growth 

 of weeds. Yellow Pine must always be planted one or two years old, 

 unless ball planting is resorted to. 



After Tourney: For the prairies, yearlings are best in ease of 

 Cottonwoods, Box Elder, Soft Maple (Soft Maple sprouts in June 

 and is very small in fall), Russian Mulberry, Catalpa, Walnut, Black 

 Cherry, Locust and Honey-Locust. At Biltmore, Black Cherry trans- 

 plants three years old do very well. Locusts two , years old are 

 clipped back. Maple and Ash are transplanted and used three to 

 four years old; Yellow Pines are used one oi' two years old; White 

 Pines two, three or four years old; Catalpa one year old, etc. 



Paragraph XXI. Lifting seedlings from nursery beds. 



It is not advisable to plow the seedlings out of the ground or 

 to tear them out with tongs. In the case of species having sjuall 

 reproductive power (Conifers, Beech, Birch) ai^itional care is needed. 

 The spade should be used; and the plant should be lifted together 

 with large clumps of dirt which, thrown on the ground, collapse and 

 allow of safe extrication of the plants contained in the clumps. 



It is wise, carriage charges permitting, to allow some dirt to 

 stick to the roots. On more binding soil the hollow cylinder spado 

 might be used for lifting small plants. Plants should be well covered 

 with burlaps, wet moss, dirt, etc., at once after digging. Plants left 

 for a number of days between the plantation and the nursery should 

 be heeled in thoroughly, shinglelike, one row covering the other, in 

 a shady place. 



Paragraph XXII. Transportation of seedlings. 



The ro'ots are thoroughly protected. A voyage from Europe to 

 Biltmore, though it may take six weeks time, will not injure the 

 plants. Plants are loosely put together in bunches of one hundred to 

 two hundred pieces, are placed in baskets or open crates, the roots in 

 the center, the tips at the circumference. Layers of plants alternate 

 with layers of damp moss. Seedlings packed tightly, especially in 

 boxes, are apt to mould. 



Plants merely taken to a nearby plantation on wagons should 

 be well covered with branches, moss or sacks, and should be sprinkled 

 during transportation. Ball plants do not need packing \mless balls 

 are very loose, when burlaps are necessary. One hundred Yellow Pine 

 ball plants, after Rankin, with balls ten inches square, make up a two- 



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