Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-07-11
DAKOTA FORESTRY.
THE pOys AND GIRLS OF THE SOUTH
SHOULD BECOME INTERESTED.
Raising Mustard-A Profitable Easily Gull
tivated-what n Cow Is worth-S5o0.0o
a Year Over Cost of Feed-Importing
Nothing But Good Grade Cattle.
CHAs # .GARpNER, Dakota Farmer.


CHAs r GARDNER, Dakota Farmer.
l have often thought what means
should be adopted to the greatest
number of people to engage in plant
ing forest trees, especially e~vergreens.
t. re are comparatively few nurseries
in the United States who make a suc-
cess financially, of growing eonifers
from the seed. There are few, how
ever, who have mastered the situation
and grow them by the million. With
but few exceptions Aursery men who
write on this subject and nearly all
horticultural writers advise farmers to
not attempt to grow them from the
seed, but to buy plants of those who
have made a success Of the business.
| know OF farmer boys who at sixteen
to eighteen years of age hove grown
these trees from the seed as success
fully, in a small way, as any nursery
man on this continent. Young men,
and in fact some young ladies seem to
grapple with this problem and seem to
understand the conditions better, that
are necessary to observe i'll order to
successfully solve it, then those who
have passed the meridian of life. ] am
writing this article simply and solely
in the interest of the people who own
land in the country where such trees
are to be desired. Suppose every
farmer who owns land, should make a
bed for growing evergreens, in the
spring of 1895. Make the bed eight
feet long and four feet wide, and that
he shades it with two lath frames, each
four feet square, laths one-half inch
apart, and that he plants four feet of
the bed with Scotch pine seed and the
other four feet with Norway Spruce,
using one ounce of each kind of seed.
The beds be made and planted strictly
according to the way described in my
article ''Growing Evergreens from
| Seed" with the exception that he uses
latin frames for shade, place twelve
inches high on the south side and
eighteen inches high on the north side.
Then get common white sheeting and
cover the whole bed with it, over the
lath and coming down to the ground
where it is fastened all the way round.
Leave this cloth on until all the trees
are up, and then in a damp spell of
weather raise the cloth from the sides
first and then in a day or SO remove it
entirely. If directions are carried out
f-11- n-l nN-nylaNA1v - tln and rf fhn
season each person will have at least
two thousand trees of each Of the kinds
mentioned. Let them remain in the
seed beds two seasons and transplant
the following spring. Parties who
take my advise and try to grow ever
green's from seed, carefully follow my
directions. / should be pleased to hear
from, whether they are successful or
not, but l will not answer any letters
from parties who have not followed
the instructions given. Those who
think it is better not to raise the bed
up from four to six inches above the
general level and disregard my instruc-
ton in that respect and their plants all
die directly after they come Up need
not be surprised as it will always hap
pen so.
will say that if you feel as do in
regard to this subject that independent
of the nurserymen of this country, who
at present seem to enjoy a monopoly of
this business, that if every intelligent
land owner would do as / have directed,
evergreen groves would spring up as
by magic all over our land.
/ appeal to the bright and intelligent
farmer boys who AN successfully carry
on this work. A bed such as l have
described is a small piece of land and
there is no land owner so Door that he
cannot devote that amount of space to
this great work. Is there an educated
farmer who is so miserlv as to refuse
his son the small space of land required
and to furnish him with enough money
to buy the articles to carry out the
plan as / have suggested.
The time has come for horticultural
writer's to stop telling farmers that
they cannot do this work, they must
tell them how to do it. 1t is the only
way to cover our land where necessary,
in the shortest possible time with
beautiful conifers. Too many articles
are written on this subject by men
who never grew one from seed in all
their lives. We want the experience
of the men who have made it a success.
[ will close in saying hat with my ex-
perience of over a quarter of a century
that | know of no case where one has
followed the directions given to the
letter, but what has met with complete
success is our soil and climate.