Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-06-23
Farmers Column.
Live thoughts on Agricultural Mat
tcrs solicited. ~
A Cheap way to Start a Grove.

A Cheap way 10 S'a's Uio'e'
From the Corydon Monitor. . ".'
If YOU want to set oRt a grove next
spring, preparations should be COM
nienced Immediately. Watch the
maple, ash, the box-elder and the
elm trees along the streams. The
seed will be right to plant soon.--
Gather good many maple seed, and
as many of the other kinds as you
can find or as you want, whichever
is easiest or can be done first. If you
hayn't time to gather them yourself,
offer some dogs who live near the
creek, little cash to get them for
YOU. and, If there is no stipulation as
TO what day of the week they are to
be gathered, they will bring the seeds
and take your money.
Keep the seeds cool and moist from
the time they leave the tree till they
go into the ground and don't let 1t he
long either. Choose a light, loose
mellow, mucky piece of ground !
mark it off with a corn marker, and
drop the seeds in the mark dozen
or so to the foot, cover an inch deep,
with loose moist earth, and press ii
q little with the hoe, leaving the Gov
ing firm enough so that 1t will not
soon dry through to the seed, yet not
so compact but the sprout can make
its way through readily. Naples are
easily and cheaply raised from the
seed Box.elders have been raised
from the seed hereabouts; probably
few of them would do. We might
Judge from tho way cottonwood
sprouts come up lii our fields, from
seed sown by the wind, that they
could be raised without any trouble.
AS soon as the frost is out of the
ground next spring, 60 into the tim
Der and dig smell trees, dig little
ones and then you will be able to get
all the root. Those of much size are
hard TO dig, bulky to move, slow 10
set, and less likely to live. Get a
few of nearly all kinds, but mostly
ash. You will find O good many ash
sprouts in the bottoms.
You will have trees enough.
The ground you propose to set
them on should be in fallow, or small
grain this season. 1t should be
plowed very deep this fall, and the
stubble turned carefully under.
In the spring, early, cast about and
stock to run that ground at all dur
ing the next five or ten years. III ID
Is, sell or give away your trees. and
plant the ground with corn I'm the
usual way. 1t has been tried over
and over again, and proved beyond
question that artificial bush pastures
don't pay. IF yeu conclude that
stock can be kept off for a while and
the ground is not already hedged all
around, that had better be done ut
first. Then mark off the ground
both ways with q pillow. Set the
trees where the marks cross. The
holes will be found ready dug for the
most part by the pillow. Eight feet is
a convenient distance. That will be
near enough after the trees have
grown q few years, and you can gel
rid OF tending the trees, for you can
plant y row of corn between the rows
of trees each way and il you cult.
vate the corn right well the trees will
tend themselves. In the fall The
corn may be shucked off and the
stalks left standing. They will
make very suitable winter protec-
ton for the young trees. In many
cases ii would be good plan to set
an orchard of hundred trees, more
or less, as near the middle of the
grove as high enough ground can be
found. A timber climate is consid-
esed good one for orchards. You
had better hedge around more ground
than you have trees to set, and plant
the rest in corn. In the fall when
the walnuts begin To drop off, gather
some and pulling up the hills of corn
that stand where trees should have
been set, put a walnut or two in each
place and cover q little. Walnut
trees can be started in this way
They don't transplant we'll. The
timber Is valuable. IL Is said not Il
make good fire wood but the tap roo
must be used largely in keeping vi
the internal fires of the earth.
We can engage in planting groves
OF those kind of trees that grow spon
taneously in our soil and climat,
With certainty of success. But W,
should take hold of trees not nativ,
to this section, with caution. Per
haps there is no kind of timber NOR,
profitable to the farmer where 1t car
be grown, than the Chestnut TIL
Tamarack is O very useful kind o
timber. The evergreens are usefu
and ornamental, but they are expen
sive and uncertain. We should ex
pertinent with them, and closely OF
serve the progress of the trials mad
by our neighbors, bearing i'm min,
that If our experiments, or thos
around us fail, 1t does not necessaril,
prove that these varieties of timbe
cannot be extensively grown here
but may only prove mismanagemen
on our part. Those wishing to rails
such timber should engage In 1t onl
on small scale, until they learn b.
practical experience what treatmen
is successful culture. No one mex
perienced should 60 i'm at first @
largely that failure would discouI
age his zeal for grove. Every farr
that has not natural grove shout
have an artificial one. They beaut
fly the landscape, they give us pleas
ure, they break the winds and mod
fly the climate, they give us comfort
they increase the keeping and sell
ing value OF orr farms. thew give II