THE FOREST SERVICE IN NEBRASKA, 43 



Things Learned by Experience. One of the first things that 

 we learned was that we could not ship in western yellow pine 

 seedlings from the forests and grow them successfully. The 

 reason is obvious to those who are acquainted with the habit 

 of growth and nature of the tree. It is impossible to dig the 

 seedlings from their natural seed beds among the rocks with- 

 out murdering their roots, and the roots are the vital parts 

 of a pine tree. 



Another thing that we learned by experience in the spring 

 of 1903 was that we could successfully grow jack pine seedlings 

 from the sandy barrens of Minnesota. Of the 70,000 trees of 

 this species planted that season between 30 and 40 per cent, 

 grew. That is not a large percentage, but it was enough to 

 encourage us. "We saw where we could improve the methods 

 of handling the trees and we determined to double the per 

 cent, of living trees in another year. In our next attempt 

 with the same kind of stock we succeeded in getting 67% per 

 cent, to grow. We made no changes in our method of plant- 

 ing, but we sent two men to the woods to see that the trees 

 were dug from the ground, not pulled, and to see that the 

 men digging the trees carried pails partly filled with water 

 and that the roots were put into the buckets as soon as the 

 trees were dug, instead of being carried around under the 

 arm until a good big bunch had been secured. Our men also 

 saw that they were properly packed. The moral of this is: 

 Protect the roots of a pine tree if you expect it to live after 

 transplanting. I have a very keen appreciation of the high de- 

 gree of intelligence of nurserymen, but the fact remains that 

 some of them do not know how to handle pine trees. The very 

 best treatment is none too good for the roots of a pine. 



The success of the jack pine as a tree for the sand hills 

 has not stopped with our own planting. We recommended it 

 for general planting throughout the sand hill region of this 

 state, and to my knowledge over 6,000 jacK pines were ship- 

 ped into this state last spring by one dealer. Five thousand 

 of these came to Thedford. Two weeks ago I wrote to each 

 of the men who bought trees and asked for the results of their 

 planting. A summary of the replies gives the following results: 

 The average of all the reports received show that 76 per cent, 

 of the trees are growing. The best report gives 97 per cent, 

 of the trees growing, the poorest 35 per cent. The writer of 

 this report states that the trees were planted on low ground 

 near the river and that the trees drowned out. The trees 

 were planted under various conditions, according to the tastes 

 of the planter. The greater number were planted in the grass 

 sod, the ground not being prepared in any way, and the remain- 

 der were planted in plowed ground. Seventy-five per cent, 

 of those planted in the sod are growing, and 71 per cent, of 

 those planted in plowed ground are living. The soil around 

 Thedford, Neb., Is as light and sandy as can be found any- 



