326 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



other growths, so that they would take on an 

 upright form, quite free from branches until their 

 tops interlaced, after which they would properly 

 crowd one another. Such planting often can be 

 done at an expense of less than two dollars per 

 acre. In planting seedlings under such conditions, 

 the best implement to use is a mattock, with which 

 a space a foot or more in diameter is cleared of 

 brush and the soil brought into condition for the 

 seedlings. Under very favorable conditions the 

 work can be done for even a less figure than that 

 given. It is not too much to expect that a man 

 and a boy, in a day of ten hours, under reason- 

 ably favorable conditions, can plant at least 1,000 

 seedlings and handle them with all the care nec- 

 essary to keep the roots from getting dry. Pine 

 and spruce seedlings are best kept in a pail 

 partially filled with water when carried to the 

 field. 



After the seedlings are planted, it is neces- 

 sary for success that they be looked after for 

 a few years until they are well established, other- 

 wise they may be smothered by the surrounding 

 weeds and trees. It is a good plan, under such con- 

 ditions, to go over the land at least once in the 

 summer with a large knife, and with a few slashes 

 give the planted seedlings an advantag-e over the 

 surrounding vegetation. 



In the planting out of old fields, where for 

 any reason it may be undesirable to plow the land 



Fig. 464. Hardy catalpa plantation of the South Amaua Colony, 

 South Amana, Iowa. Trees twenty-four years old. 



entirely, a good condition for planting may be 

 secured by furrowing out in autumn where it 

 is desired to plant, and in the spring planting on 

 the edge of the furrow where the soil has fallen 

 from the furrow-slice. In the case of hillsides 

 of this kind that are liable to wash, the furrows 

 should run across the slope and be made nearly 



level, or with a gentle slope so that the water 

 will follow the furrows without gullying them. 

 These furrows will hold the water and prevent the 

 seedlings drying out. On wet land seedlings are 

 sometimes planted on the surface, and the soil 

 mounded up over the roots. This method is well 

 adapted to white cedar on wet land. 



(4) Planting of cuttings. — ^There are few trees 

 that can be grown in general practice from cut- 

 tings, but it is the best way to start willows and 

 some poplars, since seedlings of them are difiicult 

 to secure. It may often happen that willows and 

 poplars can be planted to good advantage on the 

 cut-over land, where renewal of gi-owth is expected 

 from such shade-enduring trees as basswood, hard 

 maple, hickory and chestnut. Under such condi- 

 tions the willows will grow rapidly and form a 

 predominant covering under which the other species 

 will fiourish. 



(5) Regeneration by coppice. — The commonest and 

 simplest way of natural regeneration is the sprout 

 method. This is based on the capacity possessed 

 nearly exclusively by the hard-woods (of the coni- 

 fers only by the California redwood) to renew 

 themselves after cutting by shoots produced from 

 the stump or roots. As a matter of fact the bulk 

 of all our second growth hard-woods originated in 

 this way. This method does not depend on the 

 occurrence of good seed years, it is little affected 

 by fires, which sometimes even stimulate a more 

 vigorous sprouting, and is adapted to small as well 

 as large timber tracts. The sprouts for the first 

 40 to 50 years grow faster than trees started from 

 the seed and are, therefore, capable of producing 

 tan-bark, firewood, fence posts, ties, telephone and 

 telegraph poles within a much shorter time than 

 trees from seed. For this reason this method lends 

 itself most readily to woodlot owners, especially in 

 the central hard-wood belt, where the composition 

 of the woodlot is chiefiy hard-woods and the de- 

 mand for small-sized timber is great. Chestnut, 

 oaks, particularly the chestnut oak, ashes, willows, 

 maples and poplars are well suited for regeneration 

 by sprouts. 



In cutting coppice-growth the trees should be 

 cut off close to the ground when they are dor- 

 mant, and the stumps left highest in the center 

 so that they will have a tendency to shed water 

 and not be so liable to rot as when left hollow 

 in the center. The advantage of cutting close to 

 the ground is that the sprouts that come out 

 from the trunk soon get roots 'of their own, and 

 such sprouts are much more durable than when 

 they depend entirely on the roots of the old stumps; 

 and they are less liable to be broken off in a high 

 wind. After a number of years the ability of the 

 stump to sprout will gradually cease, although 

 with good management and protection oak and 

 other hard-woods may, be reproduced for a long 

 time in this way. 



Choice of species to plant. 



The choice of species will naturally be limited 

 by soil and climatic conditions, and also by the time 

 required to get returns. The slow-growing species, 



