Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-09-28
GROWING A PINE TREE.
Men Know How to Kill lt-Not ia
Cultivate 1t.

Apparently one of the objects in
nature that is least understood by the
average man, though formerly one of
the most common, is the white pine
tree. The knowledge of how to get
rid of it has been only too widely diff
fused Anybody can be tree
butcher, but when it comes to the
work of replacing what has been
destroyed it takes not only scientific
knowledge but infinite patience, time
and attention to details. A firm of
lumbermen in Oxford. Worcester
county, seems not only to possess but
to be- disposed to exercise these quail
ties. On it's farm there is planta-
ton of young pines just sowed, some
half a million in ALL. They are COW
cred with a mile of Stats for protec-
ton from the sun, for the young shoots
are sensitive and require tender hand
I ling i'll the infant stages. But this
half acre under Stats is but one feature
of the pine tree plantations maintained
and cultivated on the big farm 1t is
encoura ging that lumbermen are en-
gagged in this work of rehabilitation
They are doing much in the way of
atonement for the wholesale de-
mutation for which the guild is re-
SponSible.
The seed in starting white pine
plantation is as important as in start
Ing field of corn--in fact. more So
because it is the foundation of pro-
tracted period of growth, and false
start VIII impair the enterprise at
every stage. The cost at reliable seed
houses Is from two to four dollars a
pound. The seed cones are taken from
the tree, put into piles and threshed
| like grain. In size and shape these
seeds resemble buckwheat. They
| must not be soaked to hasten growth,
| but put into the ground and left to
| themselves. They come up like gar
den beans, the stalk pushing the empty
envelope out of the ground at the tip
of the green shoot. In the spawning
| bed. to which reference has been
made. there are over fifty healthy
plants within a radius of foot, all
ready for transplanting In this lat
| ter process the diminutive trees are
i put in rows six feet apart. and this
distance is also maintained between
the shoots This follows the course of
nature in putting trees in groups.
| from the ground up and their lumber
| value is much reduced. Like human
| GroWths. to be complete they must
| have the benefit of association with
| their kind
| A pine tree requires fairly dry soil
| at the same time its roots must be
kept we'll watered. The half million
| seedlings mentioned here were sown
two months ago, and are just appear
ing above the ground. 1t costs about
thirty dollars u week to keep the beds
| free from weeds At first scissors are
used to cut the grass, as to pull it up
at the start would uproot the seed
llngS, but in few months more the
foreign growths can be removed bod
lily. Furthermore, there are insects
that enjoy feaSting on the tender pines,
and against these vigilant guard
must be maintained, as well as care
against mildeW. 1t will thus be seen
that pine forest. which can be so
debouairly destroyed, is a particular
ly difficult thing to rehabilitate. With
| In three years the new plantation is
expected to be worth 81. $50 at the rate
of $3.50 a thousand trees, but Up to
that point the cost of cultivation and
protection will almost offset the in
crement, The profits will come later
An average forest thirty years old
says the head of the firm, contains
about twelve thousand square feet Of
boards to the acre. but allowed to
stand for fifteen years longer the best
part of the growth is put in, just
TRIPPING the amount of timber These
are few of the mysteries of the pine
tree. 1t is one of the easiest to cut
and one of the hardest to reproduce
But efforts along intelligent lines will
| overcome the difficulties, and unless
we follow the principle of "after us
the deluge" these are the courses we
must pursue if we would not have
postcrity destitute.-BostOn Tran
script.