92 TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



seed in drills six inches apart we have to do considerable weeding; and 

 the latter work forms one of the principal items of expense in the main- 

 tenance of a nursery 



At the end of the first year the lath and wire screens are removed, and 

 the boxing taken up. During the second season the seedlings, now known 

 as two-year olds, attain an average height of four inches and show a dense 

 mass of young foliage that has to be separated by the hands in order to 

 get a glimpse of the ground in which they are growing. 



The two-year old seedlings are now ready for removal to the transplant 

 beds, where they are reset and remain two years more. Some careful work 

 is necessary in taking up the plants in a seed bed, especially if it was made 

 by broadcast sowing. The tender roots are intertwined and tangled to a 

 much greater extent than if the seed were sown in drills. For this reason 

 many foresters prefer to plant their seed beds, so that the seedlings will be 

 in rows six inches apart, despite the extra expense incurred thereby for weed- 

 ing and the loss of moisture by greater evaporation from the exposed surface. 

 But with an exercise of proper care the seedlings can be removed from a 

 broadcast bed without injury. Beginning at one end of the bed the workman 

 pushes a sharp spade into the ground below the roots and then with an 

 upward, prying movement breaks up the earth until the seedlings can be 

 loosened by hand. The dirt is shaken off, after which the roots are easily 

 and quickly disentangled without injury. If some of the long roots are cut 

 off by the spade no harm is done. Many expert nurserymen make a practice 

 of trimming the long slender roots before the seedlings are placed in the 

 transplant beds. 



As fast as the seedlings are taken up from the seed beds they are carried 

 immediately to the transplant beds where they are set out four inches apart 

 in rows running across the beds. The rows are placed six inches apart. 

 The rows in the transplant beds could run lengthwise, and this is done in 

 some nurseries ; but for convenience in weeding we make our rows crosswise 



In setting out the two-year old seedlings in the transplant beds a 

 planting board is used, four feet long and six inches wide. Notches are 

 cut in the edge at intervals of four inches, and the holes in the bed in which 

 the seedlings are planted are made at these notches. By this method we 

 obtain a regularity in the rows both ways, which is conducive to a proper 



