42 es 
METHODS OF PLANTING. 
One word as to the method of planting. I do not think that we have 
by any means found the best, cheapest, and surest way of planting, and 
experiment in that direction also would pay. The well-recommended 
method of breaking the sod in June and plowing thoroughly in the 
fall for planting in the following spring is open to several objections, 
among which not the least is the time and expense of this cultivation. 
I should propose, for trial, to sim ply break the sod in June and sow 
millet or oats thickly to make a close stand; this will secure a return 
for the labor of breaking. The millet should be cut with a high stub- 
ble, which may be expected to catch the winter snow, keep down weed 
growth, and act as amulching the next season. 
Plant next spring, as early as possible, in trenches, without disturb- 
ing the ground between trenches, and most likely cultivation will not 
be necessary the first season, while the second season, with our dense 
planting, the trees should be able to help themselves. In this manner 
I would expect to reduce the work, and also to reduce evaporation and 
to secure the maximum of moisture in the trenches, where it is most 
needed. 
Let it not be overlooked that there is this difference between a tree 
crop and an agricultural crop: The latter we want to stimulate as much 
as we can to produce the utmost in one season, while the former we only 
want to establish. Thorough cultivation no doubt does this effectively, 
but is it the best and the only method ? 
It also stands to reason that what is best to do under one set of con- 
ditions is not so under another set. While in the sand-hill region of 
Nebraska, with a moist substratum at 6 to 12 inches, we had much bet- 
ter leave the ground undisturbed for the reason that it has the tend- 
ency to blow out, and on the other hand its capillary conductivity is 
such as not to favor evaporation from below, a heavy loam, which is 
apt to bake, shutting itself against ready percolation of water from 
above and conducting the subterranean supplies to the surface and dis- 
sipating them, necessitates some method to keep its granular structure 
more favorable, either by cultivating or, much better, by mulching. 
Certainly systematic experiments in the method of forest-planting 
are now at least as much needed as in the selection of trees. 
The mechanical tree-planter, of which I exhibit an illustration, has 
proved that you can go even on the raw prairie and start a successful 
plantation by setting the trees in trenches, leaving the rest of the ground 
undisturbed, the precipitation draining into the trenches, 
