Yol.  LXXXII. 
Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Co., 
333  W.  30th  St..  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year. 
NEW  YORK,  APRIL  7,  1023 
Entered  as 
Office  at  New  York, 
Making,  A  Pasture  into  A  Wood  Mot 
We  have  a  few  acres  of  laud  that  at  some  time  were 
covered  with  forest.  It  has  never  been  cultivated,  only 
used  as  pasture.  We  would  like  to  have  it  once  more 
in  forest  trees.  Is  it  a  good  plan  to  fence  it  and  leave 
it  to  grow  trees  that  will  naturally  come,  or  is  it  better 
to  plant  trees?  What  kinds  would  be  the  best  to  plant, 
if  that  is  a  better  plan?  The  woods  here  are  mostly 
elms,  hard  and  soft  maple,  hemlock,  some  kind  of  pine 
that  doesn’t  seem  to  grow  straight  and  tall,  small  cedars 
and  a  few  other  kinds.  Could  we  grow  our  own  trees 
from  seed  for  planting?  w.  H. 
Oneida  Co.,  N.  Y. 
N  UNSATISFACTORY  COMBINA¬ 
TION. — Trees  never  grow  satisfac¬ 
torily  in  a  pasture.  Individual  trees 
scattered  about  a  pasture,  or  along 
the  fence  rows,  may  be  all  right  to 
give  shade  or  protection  to  the  stock, 
but  in  the  long  run  one  should  determine  definitely 
•whether  a  field  is  to  be  used  for  woods  or  for  pas¬ 
ture.  and  specialize  in  the  direction  desired.  A 
wooded  pasture  never  has  the  ability  to  grow  a  good 
crop  of  grass,  and  a  pastured  woods  soon  becomes 
run  down,  the  trees  lack  vitality,  and  the  little  trees 
which  would  naturally  take  their  places  have  be¬ 
come  eaten  or  otherwise  destroyed  by  the  stock. 
Therefore,  if  a  woods  is  desired,  the  first  thing  to 
do  is  to  fence  off  that  portion  which  is  to  he  allotted 
to  trees,  so  that  it  is  apart  from  the  pasture. 
STARTING  THE  TREES.— Having  decided  the 
question  of  fencing,  there  arises  the  almost  equally 
difficult  one  of  how  to  get  the  trees  started,  and 
which  trees  to  favor.  If  there  are  woods  within  a 
distance  of  100  to  200  yards  it  probable  that  vol¬ 
unteer  seedlings  of  any  or  all  of  the  trees  which 
you  have  mentioned  will  begin  to  appear  in  the  area. 
Soft  maple  and  elm  will  probably  be  the  first  to 
appear,  especially  if  the  fencing  is  done  in  the  Win¬ 
ter.  Both  of  these  trees  ripen  their  seeds  in  the 
early  Spring,  and  each  of  them  has  little  wings 
which  aid  the  wind  to  carry  them.  The  hard  maple 
ripens  its  seeds  in  the  Fall,  but  they  also  have  wings, 
and  will  spread  quite  as  rapidly  as  the  other  two 
trees.  Hemlock  and  pine  seeds,  although  winged,  do 
not  carry  so  far  in  the  wind,  and  usually  have 
greater  difficulty  in  getting  started.  Cedar  seeds  are 
produced  in  a  berry-like  fruit,  and  are  often  carried 
by  birds,  so  that  there  is  no  telling  how  far  they 
may  spread  from  the  parent  tree.  Other  trees,  such 
as  you  have  never  noticed  before,  will  appear  all 
over  the  field.  These  trees  are. of  different  values 
commercially,  but  in  the  young  woodlot  they  should 
all  be  encouraged.  While  they  are  getting  started, 
however,  unless  some  effort  is  made  to  fill  in  the 
vacant  spaces  there  will  grow  up  a  great  many  weeds 
and  undesirable  plants.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  some 
ai*e  bound  to  grow  during  the  first  few  years,  but 
naturally  the  object  is  to  get  trees  to  grow  as  rapidly 
as  possible. 
PLANTING  TREES.— To  get  best  results  and  get 
them  most  quickly  the  area  should  be  planted  to 
some  of  the  desirable  forest  trees.  The  volunteer 
growth  may  be  encouraged,  and  will  do  admirably  to 
fill  in  any  blank  spaces  and  to  help  bring  about  for¬ 
est  conditions  more  rapidly.  Small  trees  for  forest 
planting  can  be  grown  on  the  farm,  more  or  less  as 
one  would  grow  a  garden  crop,  for  a  period  of  two 
to  four  years ;  they  may  be  purchased  from  a  com¬ 
mercial  tree  nursery,  of  which  there  are  many,  or 
they  may  he  purchased  from  the  State.  The  New 
York  State  Conservation  Commission,  whose  offices 
are  in  Albany,  maintains  seven  big  nurseries  for  the 
growing  of  forest  trees.  They  do  not  attempt  to 
grow  a  great  variety,  but  confine  themselves  to  those 
species  which  they  are  sure  can  be  made  econom¬ 
ically  successful  in  New  York  State.  They  can  be 
purchased  at  the  cost  of  production  for  purposes  of 
reforesting  land  within  the  State.  If  one  can  be 
content  with  the  somewhat  limited  list  to  select 
from,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  this  is  the  most 
desirable  source  of  material.  Their  list  includes 
white  pine,  red  pine,  Scotch  pine,  Norway  spruce, 
white  ash,  black  locust  and  Carolina  poplar.  The 
little  trees  range  from  one  to  four  years  old,  and  the 
price  is  largely  according  to  age.  Year-old  stock 
can  be  purchased  for  as  little  as  $1  per  thousand, 
while  the  four-year-old  material  will  be  $3.50  to  $4. 
depending  upon  the  species.  To  this  must  be  added 
the  cost  of  transportation  from  the  nursery  to  the 
consumer.  There  is  little  doubt  that  for  most  small 
planters  the  price  is  much  less  than  would  be  the 
cost  of  growing  them. 
SELECTION  OF  VARIETIES.— Considering  the 
character  of  the  trees  growing  in  the  vicinity,  it 
would  seem  that  Norway  spruce  will  grow  very  satis¬ 
factorily  here,  as  will  also  white  pine.  Stock  three 
The  Front  of  an  Ohio  Farm.  Trees  from  the  Farlu  Pioneers.  Fiy.  20o 
