FORESTS 



FORESTS 



329 



be transplanted before the growth of the third 

 year begins. 



The seeds of deciduous trees that ripen in 

 autumn may be sown to advantage at that time, 

 provided the soil is such that it will not pack too 

 firmly, or when the seeds are not liable to be 

 washed out or eaten by rodents or other animals. 

 Our most successful nurserymen generally prefer 



Fig. 468. Coniferous seedling bed with details of lath screen; flve-eighths inch 

 lath is used for cross and diagonal braces and one-half inch for others. 



to sow such seeds in autumn, and they aim to 

 bring about the conditions that make it successful, 

 but good results also generally follow the early 

 sowing of such seeds in the spring. The distance 

 between the rows, and the covering, should be the 

 same as recommended for elm seedlings. 



It is important to keep the soil loose and mellow 

 between the seedlings, and to keep the weeds very 

 carefully removed until at least the middle of July, 

 after which they may sometimes be allowed to 

 grow to advantage to afford winter protection ; but 

 in the case of very small seedlings this protection is 

 best given by a light mulch, put on in autumn and 

 taken off in spring. The weeds should be kept out. 



If the seeds of red cedar, black thorn, mountain 

 ash and others that require a long time to start 

 are sown in the spring and do not germinate, it 

 is a good plan to cover the bed with an inch or 

 two of hay or leaves to keep out weeds, and let 

 this mulch remain until the following spring, when 

 the seeds will probably be in condition to grow. 

 The mulch should then be removed. 



Quantity to sow. — The proper quantity of seeds 

 of deciduous trees to sow in nursery rows depends 

 very much on the kind and quality of the seeds 

 and the soil in which they are to be sown. As a 

 rule, thick sowing is better than thin sowing. The 

 seeds of box-elder, ash and maple should be sown 

 at the rate of about one good seed to the square 

 inch; elm and birch should be sown twice as thickly. 

 Plums and cherries sown in drills should be allowed 

 about one inch of row for each good seed. Black 

 walnut, butternut, hickory and similar seeds 

 should preferably be planted three or four in a 

 place, where they are to grow, and all but one 

 seedling cut out when several years old. If sown 

 in drills, they should be placed three to six inches 

 apart. Rather thick seeding does not seem to be 

 any great hindrance to the making of a sufficient 

 growth by seedlings of most of our broad-leaved 

 trees the first year, but if left thick in the seed-bed 

 the second year they are often seriously stunted. 



The quantity of seed to sow in order to secure a 

 given number of seedlings will depend also on the 

 quality of the seed and on the soil and weather 

 conditions at the time of sowing. The quality of 

 seed varies much in different years and from differ- 

 ent trees. The only way to be at all accurate is to 

 test the seed, but as this is troublesome, and as 

 the seed of most of our common trees is very 

 cheap, it is seldom practiced, and 

 growers simply plan to sow two or 

 three times as much seed as would 

 theoretically produce the number of 

 seedlings desired. 



The number -of seeds in a pound 

 varies greatly with the size of the 

 seed and dryness. In the case of the 

 birch there are perhaps four hundred 

 thousand; in Scotch, shortleaf and 

 red pine and Norway spruce there are 

 perhaps seventy thousand ; in white 

 pine about thirty thousand ; in box- 

 elder and white ash about ten thou- 

 sand; in basswood and sugar maple 

 about eight thousand ; in soft maple about four 

 thousand ; in black walnut twenty of the dry nuts 

 in one pound, and in hickory nuts forty to sixty 

 in a pound. 



Raising coniferous trees from seed. 



The land selected for the seed should have a 

 light, porous surface soil, preferably underlaid 

 with a moist subsoil that will not dry out easily. 

 It should be so located as to have good circulation 

 of air over it, that the plants may dry off quickly 

 after rains ; and it must be so shaded as to .keep 





rig. 469. One of the slat-screens used in Fig. 468. 



off about one-half of the sunlight. In practice, we 

 aim to secure these conditions as follows : A piece 

 of well-drained, rather sandy soil in an airy place 

 is selected and laid out in beds four feet wide. In 

 May, or later, the seeds are sown rather thickly 

 (about three good seeds to a square inch), either 

 broadcast or in rows, and covered with about one- 

 fourth inch of sandy loam and then with about one- 



