\Q FORESTRY MANUAL. 



experimentation in this country seems to confirm the teaching of European 

 foresters, that when properly managed in nursery, these trees may be trans- 

 planted with safety, and will make a growth about equal to the Hard maple. 

 In the spring, when the plants are two years old, the tap-roots are cut about 

 eight inches below the surface with a sharp spade. This causes them to 

 throw out lateral roots. If transplanted where wanted the succeeding 

 spring, both the oak and hickory will start at once into satisfactory growth 

 The Bur oak treated in this way in Illinois, and put in grove twelve years 

 ago, is now about the size of the Hard maple planted at same time. 



The plan of growing these trees, outlined in the extracts which follow, 

 from an able report to this Society on "Tree Grouping," by Dr. John A. 

 Warder, of North Bend, Ohio, are worthy of careful consideration. This 

 valuable article on tree grouping, will be found entire in the Iowa Horti- 

 cultural Report for 1878. 



'■You may have felt some surprise that nothing has been said about hicko- 

 ries, and that only the schooled oaks have been named. Here comes in the 

 last suggestion, and one which is urged upon your attention as a very im- 

 portant mode of grouping that is presented with considerable confidence. 

 It is based upon an observation of nature's methods, as seen in the rotation 

 of forest species in most woodlands, and also upon some of the favorite 

 methods of European forestry. It may be thus stated: , 



In planting your cheap trees, see that you have them set out in rows of 

 the several kinds in this manner, beginning with cotton wood: Plant a belt 

 of three rows ; next set two or three rows of "Water maple or willow, and so 

 on with alternate belts across the block where you want oaks or hickories. 

 . "When you have a crop of acorns, plant one in the inter-places, between 

 the cottonwoods of the middle row of each belt. The acorns will soon veg- 

 etate and make deep roots. Eor several years they will make little or no 

 tops, but there they are, and there they will stay until your cottonwoods are 

 large enough to be useful, when they should be cut down and utilized. Cut 

 in summer and peel, if used for fencing; cut in winter, if used for fuel. 

 Either leave the brush upon the surface, or remove it and give the ground 

 a good stirring with the plow. The oaks will now start off rapidly, and in 

 a few years the maples, no longer needed to shelter them, should be removed 

 in the intermediate belt, and the oaks, in rows, twenty or twenty-four feet 

 apart, may be allowed ultimately to occupy the ground. If this wide space 

 be considered too great, you may set belts of two rows of maples or willows, 

 alternating with the three rows of Cottonwood. 



, The hickories may be started and managed in the same way. The inter- 

 vening belt of maples or willows left after the cottonwoods are cut away, 

 will be of great service to the hard wood trees coming on between them, 

 and will force them up straight and less branched. The tenacity of life of 

 some trees, notably oaks and hickories, when smothered in the herbaceous 

 growths of the prairies in summer, and burned by the annual fires in 

 autumn, is perfectly wonderful, and has its illustrations constantly before 



