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Show BEST TREES FOR FARM PLANTING I . .. , . : r. tt T. : T. 7. : : - '. I A Well-Established Woodlot With. Timber Ready for Market. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) Many plantings of trees have turned out failures because of the selection of species unsuited either to the climate or to the soil. The best trees for planting plant-ing on a home farm usually are those which grow well In similar soils in the region, according to the recommendation recommenda-tion of forest specialists of the United States Department of Agriculture, in Fanners' Bulletin 1123, "Growing and Planting Hardwood Seedlings on the Farm," recently published by the department. de-partment. In determining what species of hardwood hard-wood trees should be grown, the bulletin bul-letin says, the object of growing the trees and their adaptability to the climate cli-mate of the region should be kept in mind. As Illustrations, the bulletin points out that box-elder is not a good tree to plant for timber;' the yellow poplar, because of climatic conditions, cannot be grown successfully in the plains region of the central United States, and hardy catalpa will not thrive in poor, sandy or heavy clay soils. Trees May Be Grouped. To a certain extent trees may be grouped as those most valuable for lumber, for posts and poles, for windbreaks, wind-breaks, etc. Some of the varieties listed In the bulletin as suitable for lumber are: Ash, basswood, beech, birch, black cherry, cotton wood, cucumber, cu-cumber, elm, hickory, sugar maple, red oak, white oak, red gum, sycaruorr-black sycaruorr-black walnut and yellow poplar. Varieties Va-rieties suitable for posts and poles ore: Hardy catalpa, coffee tree, red elm, eucalyptus, black locust, honey locust. Russian mulberry, oaks, osage orange and white willow. Varieties best suited suit-ed for windbreaks are: Green ash, box-elder, box-elder, cottonwood, eucalyptus, hack-berry, hack-berry, silver maple, Russian mulberry, osage orange, Russian olive, white willow wil-low and yellow willow. A mixture of two or more kinds of trees in a plantation sometimes is desirable, de-sirable, says the bulletin. For best results, re-sults, trees such as the cottonwood should be spaced widely, while others, such as black walnut and black locust, have such scant foliage that their shade does not prevent the growth of a heavy sod. A mixed planting of cotton cot-ton wood with either of the other two varieties mentioned will more completely com-pletely utilize the ground, increase the yield and bring about a better forest condition. Frequently, less expensive and less valuable varieties can be planted as fillers with trees that are to make up the permanent planting. Mixed plantings also are desirable as a orotectlon against diseases and Insect attack. When chestnut and black locust, lo-cust, which are susceptible to such attacks, at-tacks, are planted among trees not so liable to injury of this kind, the latter will provide a stand of trees If the former are killed. Utilizes Poorest Soil. Unless intended for windbreaks, plantations should be located on the poorest soil of the farm, that least suited suit-ed to the production of agricultural crops. Odd corners cut. off by streams or driveways and hillsides or poorly drained soil should be selected. In starting a grove, seedlings one or two years old are preferable to seed or cuttings. Xut trees, such as walnut, hickory and oak, develop a deep taproot tap-root and few lateral feeding roots during dur-ing their first year. They cannot, therefore, be transplanted as successfully success-fully as other trees. The nuts or acorn? should be planted on the permanent site. Sometimes it is advisable to sprout the nuts before this planting is made. Cottonwood and willow plantations planta-tions are most easily started with cuttings cut-tings 12 to 14-inch sections taken from one or two-year-old twigs of living liv-ing trees. Cuttings should be collected during early winter and burled in moist sand in a cool place preparatory to planting in the spring. In general, early spring planting Is preferable to planting at any other season. sea-son. As compared with fall planting, it has at least two distinct advantages the stock has an entire growing season sea-son in which to become established before be-fore It is subjected to the rigors of winter, and it is not in immediate danger dan-ger of being heaved out of the ground by alternate freezing and thawing. |