106 THE CULTIVATOR. 
PLANTING, No. IV.— method of propagation. 
The modes of propagation are, by seeds, by suckers Which spring 
from the roots, by layers, by cuttings, and by grafting. 
By seeds .—These may be sown in nursery beds, in drills or broadcast, 
or in the ground where' they are intended permanently to grow. In 
both cases, where practicable, the ground requires the best preparation 
that it ought to receive for a corn crop ■, and in both cases cattle must 
be wholly excluded, the plants kept clean, and the ground kept in a 
loose friable state, till the plants are of size to plant out. For the oak, 
chesnut, walnut, and, indeed, for most other forest seeds, the drills 
should be four feet apart, and the seeds placed at the distance of two 
inches in the drills. The plants should be thinned, so as to leave them 
one foot apart, if in the plantation, the second or third year. Farina¬ 
ceous seeds, covered with shells, as the oak, chesnut, beech, plane, maple, 
ash, &c. are least adapted for keeping good out of the soil. They 
should be well dried in the sun and air, if intended for spring planting, 
and continue spread in layers on a cool dry floor. The smaller kinds 
of seed, after being sufficiently dried, may be kept in smaller space. 
The elm, soft maple and plane, we can say from experience, may best 
be sownin May, as soon as they are gathered. These seeds require dif¬ 
ferent degrees of covering in the soil. The larger seeds, as of the ches¬ 
nut, oak, &c. should be covered with two inches of mould; for the 
smaller seeds, of the hard maple, linden, ash, &c. it will be proper to 
mix with them sand, in quantity about equal to their bulk, placing the 
mixture on the ground a foot in thiekness, and covering that an inch 
thick with mould. Hard seeds, or stones, as cherry, mountain ash, 
thorn, &c, with the exception of the first, remain in the soil one or two 
years before they begin to vegetate. To save trouble, these seeds may 
be kept the first summer, in sand as above directed for the hard maple 
and ash, and sownin the autumn or spring following. Cover the smaller 
seeds, when sown, with one inch of earth. The seeds of the common 
and honey locust, may be covered also an inch. The like rule applies 
to seeds of evergreens—the largest seeds the deepest. 
By suckers .^-'The common locust and the poplar afford these in abun¬ 
dance, as does the pear, plum, cherry, &c. They are generally suffi¬ 
ciently rooted the first season of their production, and they should not 
be suffered to remain longer than two seasons attached to the root of 
the tree, for if continued longer, the support they derive from the parent 
root, prevents them from making independent roots of their own, in 
such abundance as they do when separated or taken up at an earlier 
period. 
By layers .—Among the trees that may be propagated in this way, 
are the maple, beech, ash, birch, mulberry, lime or linden, and elm. 
We described the mode of propagating by layers, and also by cuttings, 
in our April number. 
By cuttings, the plane, poplar, willows and maiden hair tree may be 
propagated. Shoots of one year’s growth should be selected, from the 
most healthy and free growing branches. 
By grafting .—Even grafting is resorted to, in forest tree propaga¬ 
tion, for those varieties of trees which lose their distinctive characters 
when reproduced from seed? and which make finer trees when grafted 
on free growing stocks of their own species. We have in our grounds, 
many elms, ornamental ash and horse chesnuts, imported from Great 
Britain, which have been thus propagated by grafting. 
In forest planting, the trees are set at the distance of three to five 
feet apart, according to their species and nature of the soil; and are 
generally thinned every five years, to suitable distances, to accommo¬ 
date their growth. They are pruned, to increase their growth and im¬ 
prove the quality of the timber. The branches should at all times occu¬ 
py one-third of the heighth of the bole or stem—the leaves of this poi tion 
being at least necessary to elaborate food for the tree. 
MODES OF TRANSPLANTING. 
The different modes of transplanting are termed, 1. Slit planting; 2. 
Holing, or pitting; 3. Trench planting; and 4. Furrow planting. 
Slit planting is the most simple, and is practised on soils in their na¬ 
tural state, without any preparation of holing, ploughing or trenching. 
It is performed by three kinds of instruments, viz—by the moor plant¬ 
er, fa, fig. 1.) by the diamond dibble , fb,) and by the common garden 
spade. 
1. The moor planter, fa,) or prairie planter, is a heavy instrument, 
consisting of a wooden shaft and handle, two feet nine inches in length, 
two and a half inches broad at the insertion of the shaft, and gradually 
tapering to the point. The handle is made sufficiently large to be 
grasped by both hands, and the operator, with one stroke, drives the 
prong into the ground to the depth required for seedling trees, and by 
depressing the handle, the point of the instrument raises up the earth, 
leaving a vacuily or opening in loose earth, into which, a second per¬ 
son, (a boy will suffice,) holding a plant in readiness, places the root, 
and with the foot fixes it in the soil. 
_ 2. Th o diamond dibble, fb,) is made of a triangular plate of steel, fur¬ 
nished with an iron shaft and wooden handle. The sides are each four 
inches long, and the upper part or side four inches and a half broad. 
It is used for planting on sandy and gravelly soils, where the surface 
produce of herbage is short. In this case, the planter makes the ground 
ready with the instrument in one hand, and inserts the plant with the 
other. He carries the plants in a bag or basket suspended from his waist; 
he strikes the dibble into the ground in a slanting direction, so as to direct 
the point inwards, and by drawing the handle towards himself, an open¬ 
ing is made, and kept open by the steel plate for the reception of the 
roots of the plant by the other hand. The instrument is then removed, 
and the earth made linn about the roots of the plant by a stroke with 
the heel of the instrument. 
Fig. 1. 
3. By the spade, a cut is made in the turf, and crossed by another ai 
a right angle .' the two cuts thus made resemble the figure of the letter 
T. The handle of the spade being depressed backwards, forces open 
the edges cf the cuts, and ini the opening thus made, the roots of the 
plant are inserted ; the spade is then withdrawn, and the turf replaced 
by the pressure of the foot. 
Mattock planting is confined to rocky ground, and to soils containing 
many coarse, rough roots of herbage, heath, &c. Here the mattock is 
indispensable. The handle is three feet six inches long; the mouth or 
cutting edge is five inches bread and sharp ; the length of it, to the eye 
or shaft, 16 inches; the small end or pick is 19 inches long, (c, fig. 1.) 
The broad end is to be faced with steel. It is effectual in pairing furze, 
heath, ferns, &c. and the pick is equally so for thoroughly loosening 
the soil to be operated upon with the spade or planter, fd.) The Hackle 
prongs are recommended for clayey, tenacious soils. It is made with 
two or three prongs; the former of two, for the soil just mentioned, 
and the latter of three prongs, for stony or gravelly soils. 
Holing .—Holes or pits are dug out, and the loosened soil left for a 
season to the action of the weather, to ameliorate and reduce its texture. 
These must be, for plants of one and a half to two feet high, two feet 
broad and 18 inches deep, and filled to a suitable heighth with pulve¬ 
rized mould. The holes should be 6 to 12 inches broader and deeper 
than is sufficient to admit the roots of the plant, that the latter may 
shoot freely, and in tenacious soils, that they may be freed from stag¬ 
nant water. The holes being prepared, the process of spade planting 
is readily performed, care being taken not to insert the plant more 
than half an inch deeper than it stood in the nursery, to spread the 
roots in their natural position, to fill with fine mould, and to tread the 
earth about the plants. 
(ET In all cases of planting, it is a good practice to dip the roots in a 
puddle made with water and rich mould, which coats them and pre¬ 
vents their becoming dry ; and they should be kept covered with earth, 
and a few plants taken out at a time, as they are wanted. 
Furrow planting is performed by opening a furrow with a trenching 
plough, or two common ploughs, following in the same furrow, and 
opening the soil to the depth required for the roots of the trees. The 
plants are set in the furrows at the proper distance, and the earth filled 
in with the spade. 
Distance .—In profitable forest tree planting, seedlings of three years’ 
growth, or plants which have remained two years in the seed bed and 
one year in transplanted nursery rows, should be planted on their timber 
sites, three feet apart every way, the soil being thin, light or sandy. 
On stronger land, well prepared, the distance may be four feet. Trees 
of the age alluded to, will vary from nine to twenty inches in heighth, 
say the English writers, but with us they will generally much exceed 
this, particularly the elm, soft maple, plane, and many other species. 
It is always desirable, that seedling beds should be sheltered by trees, 
buildings or tight fences, from the inclement winds of winter. 
Works that may be referred to .—Useful and Ornamental Planting, 
Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, Planter’s Kalendar, Pontey’s 
Profitable Planter, 8tc. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Marl. —J. M. M. who dates at Valley, Pa. is advised, that he will find 
his inquiries answered in the extract upon marl, which we commence 
to-day, from the Farmers’ Series of the Library of Useful Knowledge. 
Marl is found combined with sand and with clay, and sometimes in an 
almost pure carbonate of lime; and it is of various colours, though it 
is generally of a lisht brown, specifically light, and abounds more or 
less in fragments of shells. The presence of carbonate of lime may 
be detected with good vinegar—as this causes an effervescence when it 
