Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1882-09-21
The Forest Baby.

There are "bahes in the woods
which are both beautiful aud OF value &c
those who are seeking the best invest
mentlof time and money in transplant
ing trees.
Autumn is better than spring time
for the usual methods Of transplanting,
but we have found n more excellent
way than either of these times affords.
Ali 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
cosied 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 a 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 NAV be which has been
admired for its beauty. You pick out
as many rs YOU want OF that Kind.
Take up plenty of earth with each. and
wrap enough paper around the earth te
keep it in place. The heads of the ma
pie forest babies are from two to foui
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 les
you return with score ormore preciou:
prizes 1t NAV be well to set each one
in the ground, with the paper still
around the roots and earth. The paper
unless there is more of it than j;
necessary-will do no harm if left on,
and taking it off might displace the sol
around the tiny rootlets. We want o.
course to remove the forest baby from
its old home to its new one, without it'
knowing it mas been moved. Thu;
with the expenditure of less time an6
money hci y needed to transplant {
tree t.. ..at high, twenty or more ar,
set. In te.a wears, the two-inch foresi
baby will be lager than its neighbol
which was ten u twelve feet tall, ant
set. it may be, some weeks or month;
earlier. The bay. during the life o.
both, will outgl,w 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
erablv skilled in si,ch work fail n
grow. Therefore those unskilled sci
dom even try. This method when i
becomes known will largely multiply
the number Of those who engage il
transplanting as well as increase the re
suits of a given amount OF work pei
capita in this department of silvacult
ure.
Those engaged in the good work O
inaugurating tree-planting days in thu
several States may perhaps do well IL
consider these suggestions.
A few hours judiciously spent in thi,
kind of baby farming may. a dozer
years thereafter. thus transform somt
previously unsightly home in town Oh
in country into one worth several hun
dred dollars more than it would other
wise have been worth. All this simply
by identifying it and so adding to it:
actual salable value. Less than one
dollars worth of time rainy days may
have been the only investment required
to secure this result.-GeO. Mag PotceH
Chairman Americaa Institute Fores
Committee.
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