Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-11-25
Plant II Few More Forest Trees.


There are few farms in the older and
| thickly- settled States which would not be
| improved in appearance by planting upon
| them groups or rows of forest trees. If
| this is true in the once heavily wooded re-
gions of the country, how much more val
liable must such additions be to prairie
farm. There is scarcely farm of fifty or
more acres anywhere upon which there is
not some nook or corner that might be de-
voted to the culture of forest trees with
profit, leaving the ornamental view of the
subject out of the question. A grove or
| thicklyplanted row Of white ash or hick-
| DRY will frequently furnish "A choice stick
| of timber when wanted, saving the owner
many an hour of time in searching
| through his own or neighbours woodlands
| in order to find one of the required quail
| ~. A really tough stick of white ash or
| hickory is not SO readily found in the
| original forests as one might suppose,
| even where these two kinds are plentiful,
| for the very best timber is usually what is
| termed second growths,' or trees which
| have sprung up on the edges OF the forests
| or in SOME neglected fence corner or waste
place. Every farmer and mechanic who
has had occasion to use very tough wood
| is aware of this fact, and, knowing this,
it seems strange that farmers in particular
should SO seldom think of encouraging
| more growths of this kind.
1t would require no great amount of
| capital or time 10 plant thousand or two
| of Young hickory or ash trees, and when
once started they constantly increase IN
value through an ordinary lifetime. A
man may in this way enhance the value of
his farm by many hundred dollars, and at
the same time find the timber which will
necessarily have to be cut out from time
to time Il very convenient article to have
about even to dispose of to some manu-
factory.
The season is now at hand for either
gathering the seeds of forest trees or trans
planting the young plants, such as may
be pulled or dug up from almost every
wood. White ash. naples and chestnut
seedlings may usually be transplanted
from the woods with fair success; there
are others, such as hickory, black walnut
and butternut, which are rather difficult
TO make live, owing To their few nbrous
roots: consequently il is better to raise
these trees from the seed. either planted
directly where thetrees are to grow, orsown
in nursery rows, and root pruned or trans
planted when one or, at most, two years
old.
The nuts should be gathered as soon as
they fall from the tree, then mixed with
earth. and left in pile out of doors until
spring. The usual way OF preserving the
coarse kinds OF nuts named Is To select a
convenient dry spot, then spread upon ii
a LAYER of the nuts; upon this put two
inches or more of fine soil, then another
LAYER of nuts, and so on until the heap is
finished. covering the last layer Of nuts
with earth. and leaving the top Of the heap
nearly Hat. II is also well to place some
boards on their edges around the heap,
forming a kind of pen 10 protect them
from any accidental visits Of hogs or other
animals likely to disturb them. In the
sprin. the nuts may be taken out and
planted. This keeping in heap during
winter is a better plan than planting in
the tall, as it Is much easier to protect