ONE MAN'S FOREST

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If planting is to be done in the spring or early summer (the best time), it is well to check where, what and how much with the forester during the preceding late summer or fall, before a snowfall. Seedlings should be ordered at least three months in advance of planting time. The state forestry department nurseries are the best source, and the forester or county agent wilI provide details of ordering . . . but the supply goes to first comers, and late-season orders may find the supply has been exhausted.

The care of seedlings after delivery and during the planting operation is of paramount importance. They must be kept cool and moist until they go into the ground. They should be well watered as soon as they arrive. If there is to be some delay in planting, one suggestion is to dig a little ditch along the edge of a garden, then cover the roots well with loose soil and add water. Or wrap them in burlap or grain sacks and water. When planting, a fair supply can be carried along the rows in a bucket or basket . . . again, covered by moist earth. The main stock should be kept moist as circumstances permit.

One's own ingenuity must solve the problem of how to lay out a planting grid. The hope is that five or so years later the straight and evenly spaced rows will march across the field like a well-drilled regiment, every man in his place. For our only attempt at this, we used a couple of balls of the cheapest white twine to provide straight base lines, and a seven-foot measuring stick to fix the intervals. A compass would have provided nicely the exact right-angle corners, but this seemed a little overprecise at the time, so an old survey trick came to mind. Stand on the base line and extend the arms out to the side, arms and back lined up with the base line. Without moving the shoulders, bring the arms forward, put thumbs together and sight over the thumbs. If there is a pocket tape handy, the resulting angle can be checked with the old three-four-five rule for the two sides and hypotenuse of a right triangle. Measure back three feet from the corner along the base line, and put in a twig marker. Next measure four feet along the line you hope is at a right angle to the base line and mark the point. Now five feet on the tape should join the three and four-foot points, forming the long side of the right triangle. If not, move the four-foot line accordingly.

Passages to give easy access to the whole plantation are a great convenience if it is to be kept under cultivation. Inspection, pruning and thinning and eventual harvest all involve movement of man and machine. If intensive cultivation is to be part of the program, plant three rows, then skip a row. The open space will do no harm, and may even benefit the growth. But these lanes will have to be watched for intrusive weed trees and kept open, lest the area they subtract from planting be worse than wasted.

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