28 EIGHTH REPORT OF THE 



commenced on April twenty-second and was completed May thirteentn, during 

 which period over half a million of young trees were set out. From iorty to 

 sixty- two men were employed daily on the work. The weather was cool and 

 cloudy with an occasional flurry of snow, conditions that, on the whole, were deemed 

 favorable. The plants were placed in rows, at spaces six feet apart each way, a 

 somewhat crowded condition being sought in order to facilitate the proper shedding 

 of the lower limbs in time, and to promote the necessary growth in height. This 

 spacing was adopted with reference to a thinning fifteen to eighteen years hence, 

 at which time the trees should be from sixteen to twenty feet high. The thinnings 

 can then be sold for pulp-wood or fuel; and it is expected that the revenue from 

 this source will offset the expense of the plantation up to thac time. 



The advantages of a plantation composed of mixed species as compared with 

 one containing a pure stand were fully discussed, preference being given to the 

 former, more especially for White Pine and Larch, which, on account of their habit 

 of open growth, expose the soil to the drying influences of sun and wind, and which, 

 when grown in pure stand, do not readily shed their lower branches. These 

 were mixed with Norway Spruce, only a small area of each being planted unmixed 

 for comparison. 



In setting out the plants the men were divided into two gangs, one of which 

 was provided with mattocks for digging the holes, while the other carried pails 

 filled with the seedlings, the roots of which were immersed in thick, muddy water. 

 The men were formed in two parallel lines, the mattock men in the front line six 

 feet apart, closely followed by the second line, which was composed of the planters 

 with their pails of seedlings. 



Three or four strokes of a mattock* were enough to make a shallow hole in 

 the sandy soil of sufficient depth for a seedling tree. The planter, who in each 

 case followed a mattock man, dropped on his knees at each hole, and taking a 

 plant from his pail placed it quickly in the ground, packing the loose earth 

 closely around the roots with his hands, after which he packed it still more firmly 

 with his foot before going to the next place. With the work thus systematically 

 arranged, the two lines of men moved across the fields at an even pace, covering 

 the ground at a rate that was extremely satisfactory. As the planters, in order 

 to keep up with the mattock men, had the hardest task, the gangs changed off 

 in their work after each crossing of a field, the planters then digging the holes 

 and the mattock men carrying the pails. 



*The Commission imported a supply of Wiirtemberg planting irons from Germany for use on 

 this plantation, but for general work a mattock or grub hoe (single blade) proved more satisfactory 

 than the heavier German implement. 



