376 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 6, 
uralisms • 
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NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Growing Spruce from Seeds.— A year 
ago we sowed about half the contents 
of a packet of Colorado Blue spruce 
seeds, partly in well-prepared soil in a 
frame, and partly in an ordinary plant 
flat or box, containing three inches of 
sandy surface soil from the woods. The 
packet costs 25 cents, and contained pos¬ 
sibly half an ounce of seeds. Prepara¬ 
tions were made to sow the remainder 
of the seeds in flats of similar soil, but in 
the interval they were eaten by an ener¬ 
getic mouse that passed by an abundant 
store of melon and cucumber seeds to get 
at this forest dainty. Mice are particu¬ 
larly fond of conifer seeds and seedlings, 
as will be seen later, and this trivial inci¬ 
dent is mentioned only to warn amateur 
planters of evergreens always to be on 
guard against these destructive rodents. 
The soil in the frame was deeply forked, 
and a thin coating of very fine old ma¬ 
nure raked in. The seeds were broad¬ 
cast so as to lie about an inch apart, 
and covered with roadside sand, to which 
had been added a shovelful of soil from 
under an established White pine tree, 
sifted over so as barely to cover them. 
The seed bed was then very thoroughly 
soaked with water through a fine rose 
and covered with moist halving until the 
seedlings began to come up, three or four 
weeks later. The seeds in the flat re¬ 
ceived the same treatment, except that 
no attempt was made to inoculate the 
woods soil with the organism supposed 
to be acceptable to our native conifers. 
Germination was very high; about every 
seed appeared to produce a plant, but 
perhaps 50 per cent failed to develop be¬ 
yond the seed leaves or cotyledons, of 
which there are several, and a small num¬ 
ber perished from a damping-ofif fungus. 
The others grew 7 very well, the tallest 
attaining by Fall quite three inches in 
height, with several side buds, and the 
smallest less than an inch, but with a 
single plump terminal bud. The trees m 
the flat, having more congenial soil and 
the advantage of glasshouse protection in 
their early life, made a better average 
growth, a few reaching quite four inches 
in height. Considerable attention was 
given these seedlings, to apply water 
freely without compacting the soil, and 
to give moderate shade from hot sun¬ 
light. Thin burlap, tacked over the glass 
of ordinary hotbed sash, the whole sup¬ 
ported several inches above the frame to 
allow free circulation of air, answered 
very well, and afforded good protection 
from dashing rains, to which evergreen 
seedlings are quite susceptible when in 
their tender early stages. Weeding was 
carefully done at frequent intervals, an 
old steel-tined table fork proving the 
handiest implement to uproot the in¬ 
truders without endangering the spruces. 
When the seedlings began to harden in 
midsummer the sashes were removed, and 
not again replaced until the soil was well 
frozen in December, when they were fas¬ 
tened down, leaving the width of one sash 
vacant at south end of frame to allow the 
freest ventilation. This vacancy was later 
partially filled with Eulalia straw, which 
answered well to keep out drying winds, 
while allowing enough snow to eddy in 
to prevent the soil among ti e spruces 
from drying out, but later turned out a 
nuisance by harboring a pair of Deer 
mice that showed their appreciation of 
the situation by lining their nest with 
about 50 of the choicest seedlings, quite 
consistently choosing the tallest and blu¬ 
est of the little trees. Except for this 
mishap they wintered well, and we have 
now something over 350 promising seed¬ 
lings, of which 42 are growing in the 
14 x 24-inch flat. The flat was kept near 
a window in an unheated cellar, exposed 
to cold enough to freeze the soil, and 
brought all its contained seedlings 
through without loss until the middle of 
February, when they were placed in a 
mild greenhouse, and have already made 
growths of three to five inches. 
Handling Young Conifers. —It is our 
intention to allow the little spruces to re¬ 
main in seed bed and flat another season, 
and transplant the survivors in early May 
of next year to a nursery bed six feet 
wide, setting them 14 inches apart each 
way. Old stable manure will be dug in 
as a fertilizer and a mulch of straw or 
marsh hay will be needed the succeeding 
Winter. The young trees will likely re¬ 
main in this nursery bed three years, after 
which they may be transplanted to nurs¬ 
ery rows, three by four feet, to remain 
until they develop into characteristic 
young specimens. This is slow work, but 
time passes whether trees are planted or 
not, and there is much interest in car¬ 
ing for these forest foundlings. The 
Colorado spruce is much in demand, and 
is in reality pla ted more freely than 
it should be if other highly desirable 
conifers are not to be neglected. The 
blue or glaucous tinted specimens, of 
which we may expect from five to 15 per 
cent from selected seeds, are most at¬ 
tractive when well placed in mixed plant¬ 
ings, while the green-leaved ones are at 
least equal to many other pine species 
in color effect, but the habit is too stiff 
and rigid to be very desirable for soli¬ 
tary planting. In association, however, 
with other evergreens of contrasting out¬ 
line they make ver good a. pearance. 
The merits of Colorado spruce, aside 
the rich and unique coloring of selected 
trees, arc its slow and compact growth, 
adapting it for small grounds, and ex¬ 
treme hardiness. V. hen fairly established 
it is seldom injured in the slightest de¬ 
gree by stress of weather, and does not 
even take on the shriveled and distressed 
look of the Norway spruce and other ex¬ 
otic pines during extreme freezes. Near¬ 
ly all our desirable conifers may be 
grown from seeds as readily as this 
spruce—most of them are far more rapid 
and certain in development. We have 
gone into detail to impress on beginners 
the essentials in the care of conifer seed¬ 
lings—fine, light st’d bed, inoculated, if 
possible, with soil from underneath pines, 
spruces or hemlocks, light covering, care¬ 
ful watering to avoid hardening the soil, 
light shade, careful weeding and protec¬ 
tion from dashing rains, as well as from 
too much ice, snow, heaving frosts or dry¬ 
ing winds in Winter, and, above all, from 
mice, as the losses of conifer seedlings 
from the latter cause by foresters and 
nurserymen are quite distressing. The 
well-know'n evergreen nurseries of R. 
Douglas’ Sons, Waukegan, Ill., one Win¬ 
ter suffered a lc,ss from mice in White 
pine seedlings alone of $5,000 before their 
work became apparent by the melting of 
the snow. Seeds may easily be guarded 
from vermin, but the onb- practical meth¬ 
od of protecting seedlings during Winter 
appears to be trapping or poisoning the 
mice before depredations are begun. The 
former is quite difficult and uncertain, 
but the pests may be poisoned fcy sprink¬ 
ling in the runways or ill protected places 
about the frames or under the mulch a 
few grains of w'heat or corn that have 
been previously soaked in a solution of 
strychnine. A very effective formula is 
three quarts wheat or corn, one-twelfth 
ounce strychnine sulphate, one-half pound 
brown sugar and one quart of water. The 
water should be moderately heated and 
the strychnine and sugar thoroughly dis¬ 
solved. When nearlv cool the wheat nr 
corn is put in and allowed to soak two 
days, by which time it will have ab¬ 
sorbed about all the water. The grain is 
then completely dried and used when 
needed. Caution is always 'necessary 
in storing and in using such poisoned 
grains, that poultry and birds do not get 
at them as well as the mice. A careful 
user will be able to control the pest with¬ 
out accident, but a bungler may cause 
much harm. 
Evergreen Seedlings by Mail.—The 
R. N.-Y. has frequently reported success 
in planting one and two-_ ear conifer 
seedlings bought from nurseries at a mod¬ 
erate price and shipped by mail. . Three 
years ago we received a package con¬ 
taining 50 two-year hemlock spruce, cost¬ 
ing $1. The little fellows had been care¬ 
fully packed and came in good condition. 
They were at once planted in good gar¬ 
den soil, a foot apart, well watered and 
shaded until established. They made 
a slight growth the same season, and 
a much better one the succeeding 
year. To test their hardiness in an ex¬ 
posed situation no protection whatever 
was given them. Accident and heaving 
by fro r the first Winter reduced the 
number to 35, but such a vigorous 
growth was made the third year that 
we were able to carry out a cherished 
plan of planting a hemlock wind-break 
70 feet long on the north side of a poul¬ 
try run. It is true these little ever¬ 
greens, the tallest of which is little over 
two feet high, will not afford much pro¬ 
tection for several years, but they are now 
in place and at a most trifling outlay of 
money. Two prominent evergreen nur¬ 
series advertising ii. The R. N.-Y. offer 
these dollar mail collections, containing 
from 2 ~ to 100 seedlings, according <o 
variety, almost every one cf which will 
grow if intelligently planted and cared 
for. The advantage over seeds is the 
saving of one or two years’ time and the 
dispensing with the extreme care needed 
for delicate seedlings. w. v. F. 
Soaking Potatoes. —In reference to soak¬ 
ing seed potatoes in formalin for preventing 
seal), I can speak from experience. Two 
years ago I soaked both the early and late 
potatoes at the same time; and, although the 
late ones were not planted for six weeks after 
the early ones. I could detect no injury. 
There were about 20 bushels of them, and 
they were thrown in flat pile after soaking. 
New Hamburg, N. Y. c. e. w. 
NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA 
Air is four-fifths nitrogen. LET BACTERIA 
BATHER IT FOR YOU. Inoculate your soil and 
seed with NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA. 
Safe and easy—atfyone can do it. Used on alfalfa, 
clover, peas, sweet peas, cow peas, beans, etc. One 
treatment lasts for years! Half acre package $1; 
one acre $1.50. Send for circular. 
Vermont Soil Inoculation and Seed Co. 
43 Colchester Avenue, Burlington Yt. 
IF YOU WANT 
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