232 TREES AND TREE-PLANTING. 
opening holes a foot or more in diameter, into which 
separate trees are inserted. 
“ Where not supplied with stock for the production of 
desirable forest-trees, have furrows ploughed at close in- 
tervals, as guides to the planter of seeds or of little 
trees, and to facilitate cultivation by hand, to subor- 
dinate such weeds and other undesirable growths as 
might interfere with the trees that are intended to con- 
stitute the crop. Planted or sown in such a manner, 
the growth of the plants will not be so rapid as when 
well cultivated. 
“Tn open woods, and in accidental vacancies, the‘ notch- 
ing’ process, for the production of young oaks, ashes, 
and other species, has been extensively practised, and 
with good results. 
“The catalpa, white ash, black walnut, black cherry, 
and other valuable species will grow well enough on their 
congenial soils when once well established, even with- 
out the thorough preparation needed for arable lands, 
but they must be planted thickly, either alone or with 
nurses, and they must be kept free from the intrusion 
of weeds until they completely shade the surface, even 
if this requires double the number of years usually 
found necessary on the more level plantations. With 
nurses, the free use of low-growing bushes would be ad- 
visable. 
“ Of this character, even the common elder and sumac 
bushes would be very desirable nurse-plants, as they are 
readily produced by inserting bits of roots into the spade- 
notches, and because, when shaded by the growing trees, 
they will gradually be smothered and disappear, after 
having for a few years pretty effectually shaded the sur- 
face of the ground and yielded some profit as a subsidi- 
ary crop of berries and leaves. 
“The planter is particularly enjoined to beware of the 
effects of rank, coarse-growing, annual weeds, and also 
of the blue-grass of rich soils.” 
