PRACTICAL PAPERS—THE MAPLE FAMILY. 
293 
is as easily accomplished as is that of the southern raised 
sugar, and some of the best samples raw are equal to the C cof¬ 
fee sugar of commerce. 
A few plain directions for planting and growing the maples 
may be of some interest here, and are appended. 
The earliest maple to ripen its seeds is the White Maple. 
And the Bed Maple seed ripens soon after. As a rule, maple 
seed should be planted about one inch deep in mellow soil, 
within a short time after it falls, or it may be plucked from 
the tree when ripe and immediately planted. Clean culture is 
imperative, and for the first year the little trees may stand 
from 11 to 20 to the foot in drills. The seedlings may be 
pulled in the fall or in the spring early, by cutting the tap 
root with a sharp spade eight inches from the surface. 
To plant a forest, run a corn marker over the ground one 
way. One hand with the trees, and one with a spade following 
the mark; plant by thrusting the spade perpendicularly two-thirds 
its length, then bear the handle back a foot, then thrust again 
clear down and bear the handle forward to give an opening 
back of the spade for the roots ; put in the tree, withdraw the 
spade and tramp. 
Use will soon make these motions rapid and certain, and two 
can plant 6,000 trees per day. Culture must be clean till the 
trees in foliage fully shade the ground. Sugar Maple and 
Black Maple ripen seed in the fall, and they immediately drop. 
Ash Leaf Maple ripens seed in the fall, but it is persistent, 
often hanging till spring. The seed of this tree may be planted 
spring or fall, and does equally w 7 ell at either season. 
Four acres to each quarter section of cultivated land in 
Wisconsin, is not too much to be planted to the Ash Leaf 
Maple, and though the writer is heartily in sympathy with all 
tree planters, be the subjects of their care what they may, and 
though the prospective profits to flow from tree planting are 
not by any means confined to the family of trees under con¬ 
sideration, yet he must state, that it is his firm conviction that 
no other sort of tree whatever can be so profitably, and should 
be so generally planted as the Ash Leaf Maple. 
