In order to germinate, seeds must have warmth, air, and moisture. The preparation of a seed bed is, therefore, necessary in order to supply these conditions in most favorable combination. In the natural forest millions of seeds rot or dry without sprouting, and millions of seedlings sprout, but soon perish under the too dense shade of the mother trees.
Man, desiring to reproduce a valuable wood crop, cannot afford to be as lavish as nature, and must therefore improve upon nature's methods, making more careful preparation for the production of his crop, either by growing the seedlings in nurseries and transplanting them, or else by cutting away the old growth in such a manner as to secure to the young self-grown crop better chances for life and development.
[2. HOW TO PLANT A FOREST.]
Forest planting and tree planting are two different things. The orchardist, who plants for fruit; the landscape gardener, who plants for form; the roadside planter, who plants for shade, all have objects in view different from that of the forest planter, and therefore select and use their plant material differently. They deal with single individual trees, each one by itself destined for a definite purpose. The forester, on the other hand, plants a crop like the farmer; he deals not with the single seed or plant, but with masses of trees; the individual tree has value to him only as apart of the whole. It may come to harvest for its timber, or it may not come to harvest, and yet have answered its purpose as a part of the whole in shading the ground, or acting as nurse or "forwarder" as long as it was necessary.
His object is not to grow trees, but to produce wood, the largest amount of the best quality per acre, whether it be stored in one tree or in many, and his methods must be directed to that end.
As far as the manner of setting out plants or sowing seeds is concerned, the same general principles and the same care in manipulation are applicable as in any other planting, except as the coat of operating on so Large a scale may necessitate less careful methods than the gardener or nurseryman can afford to apply; the nearer, however, the performance of planting can be brought to the careful manner of the gardener, the surer the success. The principles underlying such methods have been discussed in the chapter "[How trees grow];" in the present chapter it is proposed to point out briefly the special considerations which should guide the forest planter in particular.
WHAT TREES TO PLANT.
Adaptability to climate is the first requisite in the species to be planted.
It is best to choose from the native growth of the region which is known to be adapted to it. With regard to species not native, the reliance must be placed upon the experience of neighboring planters and upon experiment (at first on a small scale), after study of the requirements of the kinds proposed for trial.