RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEED. 2$ 



plant. He loves Birch and Maple; he likes the Norway and 

 White Spruce and White Pine, and he orders themi from the 

 Bast and plants them all in the best manner. But there comes 

 in a year or two one of those hot waves which kills every tree 

 on his place. Such attempts have been often made with like 

 results, yet, if the right kinds had been planted there would 

 have been no failure. 



Damping Off: This is the terror of despair of the Ever- 

 green grower. The seeds will come up all right, and he be- 

 gins to figure his profits, when there will come a heavy rain 

 followed by a bright sun and his trees go down by the thou- 

 sand. This usually happens when the trees are quite tender and 

 the stem is weak and before the second set of leaves has form- 

 ed and the stem has become woody. After this there is not 

 much danger. It is then highly important to give the trees as 

 early a start as possible, so they can harden up before the ex- 

 cessive heat of summer. Many kinds will do best planted in 

 the fall, or they miay first be sprouted in warm water, and 

 then planted quite early. 



Many plans have been devised for circumventing this dif- 

 ficulty. We must follow the lines of nature. I have often 

 watched seedlings in the forest. How are they started there? 

 The cones open and the seed falls in the leaf mould. Deciduous 

 trees are often near and when the seed falls they are co^'ered 

 with needles and the leaves of the neighboring trees. The 

 point of danger, where the damips attack the seedling, is just 

 between the air and earth. Nature guards this point careful- 

 ly. One cause of the trouble in the nursery is that the rain 

 spat'ters the mud on the tender plant and this in some way in- 

 duces the damps. I have found Nature's plan to work well, 

 and after sowing the seed have covered the beds with a coat 

 of moss or crushed leaves, worked up fine so that the seedlings 

 could coine up through them; pine needles also may be used. 

 Mr. Scott, of the Dismal River station, has devised this plan: 

 he carefully sows the seeds and covers them with fine gravel. 

 This prevents the spattering of tiie mud when it rains and he 

 finds the danger with this method comparatively small. So 

 there are several things to be taken into consideration: 



1st: There should be a location chosen with congenial soil 

 and climate. While you cannot raise trees from the smallest 

 seeds like the Pungens, Engelman and Jack Pine in Kansas and 

 Nebraska, yet in many parts of Illinois, Ohio and the eastern 

 states they can be grown to advantage. 



2nd: In the West plant those kinds which are the least 

 liable to damp off, mainly Ponderosa, the Chinese and Siberian 

 Arborvitaes, and with care you can grow the Austrian Pine, 

 Douglas Spruce and Concolor Fir. 



