Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-09-15
The Forest Baby.

There are "bahes in the woods"
which are both beautiful and of value to
those who are seeking the best invest
ment of time and money in transplant
ing trees.
Autumn is better than spring time
for the usual methods of transplanting,
but we have found more excellent
way than either of these times affords.
All through the woods, and under the
trees on the edges of the forests and
along the roadside, little forest babies,
or seedlings, are springing up. They are
cos!ed away under parent elm and
naples, linden and ash trees. Any
rainy day from the first of June till on
into September is good time to select
these sylvan seedlings, and set them
where you wish them permanently to
stand. Take an ash-pan and trans
planting trowel, with an old newspaper
or two in your pocket, out under some
hard maple of exceptionally fine form
and size; one it may be which has been
admired for its beauty. You pick out
as many as you want of that kind
Take up plenty of earth with each, and
wrap enough paper around the earth to
keep it in place. The heads of the ma
pie forest babies are from two to four
inches high, and peep cunningly out of
their nest in the ash-pan. They are put
snugly in among their cousins of other
desired varieties, and in an hour or less
you return with score ormore precious
prizes. 1t may be well to set each one
in the ground, with the paper still
around the roots and earth. The paper
al. nfs 20
nccessary-willd do no harm if left on,
and taking it off might displace the soil
around the tiny rootlets. We want of
course to remove the forest baby from
its old home to its new one, without its
knowing it has been moved. Thus
with the expenditure of less time and
money than is needed to transplant q
tree ten feet high, twenty or more are
set. In ten years, the two-inch forest
baby will be larger than its neighbor
which was ten or twelve feet tall, and
set. it may be, some weeks or months
earlier. The baby, during the life OF
both, will outgrow the other. 1t will
also continue to grow long after the
other has reached maturity; as it never
had one hundredth part the root dis
turbance which has been suffered by
the other.
No more skill or work than is needed
to transplant cabbages is required fol
this treatment of forest babies.
A large proportion of the trees usual
ly transplanted, except by those consid
erably skilled in such work, fail tc
grow. Therefore those unsSilled sci
dom even try. This method when il
becomes kntwn will largely multiply
the number of those who engage il
transplanting as well as increase the re
suits of n given amount oil work pei
capita in this department of silvacult
ure.
Those engaged in the good work o
inaugurating tree e-planting days in the
several States may perhaps do well tt
consider these suggestions.
A few hours judiciously spent in thi
kind of "baby farming may, a dozel
years thereafter. thus transform som'
previously unsightly home in town o
in country into one worth several hun
dred dollars more than it would other
wise have been worth. All this simply
by beautifying it and SO adding to it
actual salable value. Less than ont
dollars worth of time rainy days ma.
have been the only investment required
to secure this result. Geo. May P0UeH
Chairman american Institute F'oreS
Committee.