62 BULLETIN 479, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
other reason, it is decidedly undesirable. If plans will permit it, 
species should not be grown at a nursery where it is necessary to give 
them shade during the transplant stage. Some trees, however, such 
as spruce, true firs, redwood, and western red cedar, have, wherever 
grown so far, appeared to need shade when first transplanted. Doug- 
las fir transplanted when only 1 year old has shown a need for shade 
at the Beaver Creek Nursery in Utah, at the Pocatello Nursery in 
Idaho, and at the Gallinas Nursery in New Mexico. Engelmann 
spruce transplants do better if shaded, both at the Monument and 
Wind River Nurseries; and the same is true of western red cedar 
at Wind River. 
Shading of transplants is expensive. It stimulates height growth, 
which is normally undesirable in stock for field planting, and 
the stock produced is not so well fitted for enduring the more 
trying conditions to be met in the field as that grown in full sun- 
light. A possible exception to this is to be found in the case of Doug- 
las fir for planting under aspen in Utah and southern Idaho. Here 
it is thought, but not proved, that stock shaded in the transplant beds 
may be preferable for field planting. 
Cultivation and toeeding. — Cultivation serves the same purpose in 
transplant beds as in seed beds; that is, it breaks up a crusted sur- 
face soil, conserves soil moisture, and cuts down the amount of weed- 
ing and watering necessary. At the old Garden City Nursery only 
one-third as much watering was necessary with cultivation as with- 
out it. Cultivation is best carried on as soon after watering as a 
crust begins to form on the soil, and it is a particularly desirable 
operation in heavy soils. On loose, sandy soils it is not so essential, 
but is beneficial even there. It can be carried on rapidly with a 
wheel cultivator, by the use of an ordinary potato hook whose center 
tine is cut out, or by some other similar tool which straddles the 
rows (PI. XXII). 
Weeding should be done as often as is necessary, which is usually 
from three to four times a season. Pulling by hand is the most 
effective method, but some implements are good, such as narrow 
hoes or tools with sharp V-shaped edges. At the Wind River 
Nursery the chief weeds are brake fern and blackberry vines, which 
can not be pulled very well without damaging the trees. They are 
accordingly cut off below the ground. For this purpose a weed 
cutter was originated from one of the straps of steel which reinforced 
the shank of the handle of a worn-out shovel. This short, half- 
tubular, curved piece of steel with a sharp V-shaped notch filed in 
the end of it was riveted to the end of a broom handle. Experience 
has shown that this tool is very well adapted to the work. 
Mulching during winter. — Transplants in general need no atten- 
tion during the winter. Occasionally mulching is practiced when 
