54 



TIMBER- TREE PLANTING. 



humus put in the soil by turning under a green crop 

 helps to retain moisture. A row of close-growing trees 

 on the side of the prevailing winter winds lessens the 

 cold weather evaporation from the trees. But what 

 will help in one soil or climate may be worse than use- 

 less in another. All that is intended here is to suggest 



some of the causes of frost-killing and some of the most 

 palpable preventives. The particular line of treatment 

 will be best marked out by each orchardist for himself, 

 as his own observations give him facts for his guidance. 



JuD. Pierce. 



Mobile Co., Ala. 



TIMBER-TREE PLANTING. 



IN SECTIONS SIMl 



a recent article on our black 

 locust it was stated that this 

 species was almost extinct, and 

 that the posts of this wood were 

 scarce and high-priced ; also 

 that it was a precarious tree, 

 not flourishing in all places. 

 Experience and observation 

 have not shown me a tree that 

 will thrive more generally 

 except in low wet ground. Far 

 back — say about 1830 — I 

 helped to plant locust-seed in black mellow soil 

 among limestone rocks, on a ridge not fit for the 

 plow, or to grow farm-crops. We usually put three 

 or four seeds in each place, and when they were 

 well started, took up all but one. Of course, we 

 kept the grass and weeds away, and the ground 

 loose around the young trees. They were about 

 six years old when I left the place, but on return- 

 ing after twenty years I found some of them nearly 

 a foot in diameter, and fifteen feet to the first limbs. 

 This shows that the trees may be relied on as fair 

 growers in good soil. 



The scarcity of this tree need not continue long, as it 

 is so easily grown. In the spring when the ground has 

 become warm, about corn-planting time, sow the seeds 

 in drills six inches apart in rows four feet apart, so that 

 they can be easily cultivated. The seeds should have 

 been treated previously by pouring scalding water on 

 them and allowing them to soak for 24 hours. If they 

 do not swell, give them another dose of the hot water. 

 Cover them with one inch of soil and press it firmly on 

 them. If well cultivated in good soil they will often 

 attain the considerable height of four and five feet the 

 first season. The seedlings are then ready to be set out 

 permanently in a forest, or they can be left until two 

 years old. 



When designed for timber, I would plant them just four 

 feet each way, and cultivate both ways, thus doing away 

 with most of the hoeing. In five years they will be 

 large enough to make strong stakes or light -posts, and 

 half can be cut out for the purpose. Cut diagonally 

 one way. This will give the remaining trees room 

 to grow three year? more, when another half can be cut 



LAR TO MISSOURI. 



out cross-wise from the first cutting. The timber is then 

 large enough for posts to support barbed wire fence. 

 Now the trees are eight feet apart each way, and may 

 stand five years more. Then renew the cutting both 

 ways as before, and the remaining trees will be 16 feet 

 apart and they will have room enough to spread out to 

 a good size and attain a diameter ranging from 9 to 12 

 inches. 



The value of the timber taken off the ground up to 

 this time will be more than all the work or land has cost, 

 and on an acre of the ground there will be about 170 

 trees, worth at least $5 a piece when 15 years old from 

 the saving of the seed. 



The osage orange may be treated in like manner; it 

 may not grow quite so fast as the locust, but in point of 

 durability it is equal if not superior. I have used stakes 

 of young osage orange not over two inches in diameter 

 which after having been in the ground five years were as 

 sound as when put in. 



The catalpa, whose timber is said to be equal to locust, 

 is a much faster grower than any of the others, and may 

 be the most valuable of the three. All these require 

 planting pretty thick, so as to make an upright instead 

 of a spreading growth. They need but little pruning, 

 but when limbs are removed from the locust, it is neces- 

 sary to oil or wax the wound to keep out the flat-headed 

 borers whose attacks are the chief objection to growing 

 this tree in some localities. They are even charged with 

 attacking the sound tree, but I have my doubts about 

 that. Assuming that the charge is true, the trouble and 

 expense of spraying the trees with some arsenites about 

 the time the insects lay their eggs would be well 

 rewarded. 



Here the red cedar is our post-timber tree, and the 

 hills are covered with it. Twenty-four years ago I helped 

 to put in cedar stakes where the town lots were marked 

 off, and some of them are still sound. They are two 

 inches square, and were driven into the ground a foot 

 deep. The timber question is a very important one, and 

 by far toofew people concern themselvesabout it. Now, 

 while we still have timber enough to last awhile, it 

 is time to plant for the future generations. Trees do 

 not grow up to maturity in a year, nor in ten ; they 

 take a lifetime and more. When I leave this world I 

 think I will leave thousands of trees for every one I 

 ever cut down. 



Minitgotnery County, Mo. S. Miller. 



