is similar in many ways to the ordinary potato hook, only having two prongs which are longer, and the whole casting somewhat heavier. By the use of this tool one man can loosen up about as many as two men can pull or pick up. One quick man can follow fairly well. These seedlings need a little care in lifting, however, after being loosened by the hoe. Where they have grown in sod ground as is often

the case in the meadow at the edge of the woods, one man can loosen as many as three men can pick up as they should be handled. It sometimes happens, however, where seedlings are growing in fine, deep, rich leaf mould that, if gathered at the right season, they will come up as rapidly as one can pick them, so easily do they free their roots from the soil.

A man can hold about twenty-five trees in his hand easily and when this number has been pulled they may be put in

small piles or baskets, protecting the roots from the sun. Averaging all conditions which varied from sod to those grown in leaf mould, each man averaged from 175 to 250 trees per hour. It is a safe estimate to say that seedlings of two years of age can be dug for about 75 cents per thousand when moderately thick.

(2) Cost of Packing. Where the trees are not to be shipped, of course this item of expense is not reckoned. Where they are to be shipped, however, the best method we could devise was to use the ordinary Boston market bushel box. As shown in the accompanying photograph, they can be placed flatwise in two tiers, the roots coming together in the center of the box, where damp sphagnum moss is packed about them; or the box is placed on its side and the seedlings are laid one on top of the other, the roots towards the bottom. The bottom of the box is first packed with damp sphagnum. When the boxes are filled, slats are nailed over the top to hold them in place. By the first method 600 trees can be packed in a bushel box, and there is little danger of their heating or drying out. If wet occasionally, they have kept for several weeks thus packed.

The other method enables one to pack the seedlings much closer in the box and those thus packed averaged from 1,200 to 1,400 trees. The latter method of packing is the quicker and cheaper, but not adapted for shipping long distances. For most purposes, however, it is the more practical, as they will stand shipment for a week or even more thus packed, before being transplanted. The cost of packing is nominal. If the seedlings are handled well when pulled and kept in bunches of twenty-five each with roots and tops together, one man can pack ready for shipment 20,000 in one-half day. The bushel boxes are worth 10 cents each. In the 22,000 dug no account was made in the packing, but all was included in the 75 cents per 1,000 as cost of digging and packing. If packed according to the first method named, it would take twice as long as when stood up in the bushel box.

(3) Cost of Transplanting. In transplanting, placing the trees in pails containing some water in the bottom, or better a thin solution of water and soil (puddled), will prevent the roots from drying out. In setting, two men can work to better advantage, one using a spade or heavy dibble, which is thrust into the soil making a hole, while the other follows with the seedling tree, placing it in the opening and pressing the earth firmly about the roots.

It was found that two men under favorable conditions could set on an average about 400 seedlings per hour. Where it was easy digging and the soil friable, this number could be increased, but when setting in a tough sod not so many could be handled. The number of acres set and expense of the work will depend upon the distance they are set apart. When set 8 x 8 feet, it required 680 per acre and at a cost of setting approximately 50 cents per acre. Set 5 x 5 feet ordinarily recommended, it takes 1,742, or at the rate of about $1.50 per acre.

(4) Cost of Digging and Transplanting. Taken together, therefore, the total expense of digging and transplanting wild seedlings amounted to only approximately $1.50 a thousand. This low figure places the problem of restocking lands adapted to the growth of the white pine beyond question as an economic one.

When it is more generally known, the writer feels confident that this simple and practical solution will be very generally practised.

Time of Year to Do the Work.

The best time for transplanting the young pine seedlings is very early in the spring. As soon as the frost is out of the ground begin the work. At this time of the year the atmosphere is laden with moisture, the soil does not dry out and everything is favorable for the plant. The earlier the work is done, the more time the young trees have to become well established before the trying time of summer sets in. The month of April has been found the best time in this

climate. Much will depend upon the season, a wet season being more favorable for transplanting trees than a dry one. The continued and frequent rains of last season (spring of 1904) gave ideal conditions for setting out young trees, and even those set the last of May came through successfully. The great danger to these young trees comes during the first year after transplanting and an extremely dry season is their most dangerous pitfall. Of course, the nature of the soil in which they are planted is an important factor. Where the soil is liable to be affected by drouth it will often pay to do some watering the first year. This is true not only of native seedlings but of the nursery-grown stock as well.

How to Favor the Production of Natural Pine Seedlings for Future Use. (Nature's Nursery Assisted by Man.)

In the spring of 1902, following a heavy seeding year, quantities of seedlings sprang up throughout the college forest and a small area, well adapted for the purpose, was set aside for carrying on an experiment in thinning for improved forest growth and to see also if the self-sown seedlings could not be further developed for planting purposes. The average size of trees cut was six to eight inches in diameter, with an occasional larger one. The better trees were allowed to remain and all others, including the larger ones, were cut. The accompanying photograph, where two students are at work digging seedlings, shows this tract after thinning was done. Before cutting, the trees to come out were spotted, taking a chip off each so they were easily distinguishable. The chopping was contracted for by the thousand board measure for those that were sawed and by the cord for the remainder. It was necessary to pay a little more for this labor, but choppers were thus satisfied and did the work well. It requires more painstaking on the part of the choppers where they do not take everything clean as they go, but with a little direction and planning it costs but little more.

The results of this thinning were that the seedlings came up thickly as usual, but on account of proper conditions of light and shade they made a strong and healthy growth. Not only did the large trees left standing serve to soften the light, but fire weed sprang up in sufficient quantities to protect the small trees that otherwise might have suf

fered.

These weeds are annuals and therefore are killed down at the approach of frost.

The seedlings taken from this area the past year were especially strong and healthy; as valuable as most nurserygrown stock. This practice of assisting the growth of seedlings can be carried out easily on most farms to advantage and at no extra cost.