CHAPTER IV. 



RAISING EVERGREENS FROM SEEDS. 



This is a broad subject and there are many points to be 

 taken into consideration. 



In the first place, the question comes up "What is the dif- 

 ference between collected land nursery-grown trees?" That 

 depends on the condition of the wild trees, and how and where 

 they grow. For instance, the Concolor Fir and th6 Ponderosa 

 Pine are difficult to transplant from the wild state. But it you 

 find them growing in gravel or disintegrated granite, where you 

 can get all the fibrous roots, there is but little trouble. If they 

 grow on rocky ground, let them alone. The Douglas Spruce 

 and Picea Pungens, if growing in favorable conditions, trans- 

 plant very readily. Of the 3,000 of th"e latter sent to a. firm in 

 Massachusetts 95 per cent li^'ed. 



Perhaps it takes a year longer for them to be fully es- 

 tablished, yet there is quite a gain by using them, and then 

 you have a chance to pick the choicest colors. 



The Ponderosa are raised so easily from seed and they 

 grow so rapidly, there is no use in trying collected ones; though 

 of these I generally save fifty per cent and gain a year or two 

 of time. 



As to Jack Pines, they generally grow in sand and often 

 in the open; in which case there is little difference between 

 the wild and nursery-grown. 



In raising fromi seed it makes a great difference what kinds 

 you plant and where you get the seed. If you wish to raise 

 Ponderosa tor the semi-arid regions, get the seed from the 

 Colorado foot-hills, where it is usually hot and dry. But these 

 will not do so well in Minnesota or the Daliotas. If you are 

 raising for those states, get the seed from the high altitudes 

 of the Rockies or from the highest sections of the Black Hills. 

 I am convinced that this tree has miore to do than any other 

 in foresting the great, bleak West. In the first place it is the 

 most easily grown; besides it is best adapted to all that re- 

 gion. In scores of instances I have seen the soil scraped off 

 by the railroads down to the hard pan and the whole ^ jace 

 would be filled with little trees; the seeds having been whirled 

 there by the winds in the tall. They were covered with snow 



