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The Two Magicians and the April Rains: April: Maple

Early spring is the best time to plant tree seeds, except those of species such as the Silver Maple and White Elm, which mature in May or June. These should be planted as soon as they ripen. So with the Cottonwood (although more easily grown from cuttings), Slippery-Elm, Red Maple, and Russian Mulberry. Generally speaking, tree seeds should be planted as soon as the soil and weather conditions become suitable for the planting of early vegetables. Nuts and acorns should be planted two or three inches apart in rows, while the seeds of Ashes, Maples, Catalpas, Elms, and Hack-berries, in which the average of germination is not high, should be spaced from one-half inch to one and one-half inches apart. Seeds of still lower germinating average, such as the Basswood and Yellow Poplar, should be sown three or four seeds deep in the rows. The depth of planting should never be greater than twice the average diameter of the seeds.

If rains don't furnish enough moisture, the beds should be watered once or twice each week sufficiently to saturate the earth to a depth of at least six inches. Mere sprinkling is no good. An excellent practice is to pour water into shallow furrows hollowed out between the rows and allow it to soak down. To prevent evaporation, watering should be done in the early morning or toward sundown.

In regions where winters are mild it will be sufficient to hill up the rows to a depth of four to six inches, but be careful not to bury them! Where winters are severe there should be, in addition, a covering of straw, leaves, or moss from six inches to a foot in depth, held in place by branches or poles. And schools that have begun doing things along this line have found that they can sell trees from their nurseries for planting in wood-lots, or near-by cities or towns may want them for streets, parks, or homes, and so make the whole enterprise not only pay for itself, but earn a tidy sum for the little school "community chest" besides!

Of course I need hardly add that it will not do to leave the young trees which were planted during the spring term to take care of themselves through the hot months of July and August and until school opens again in September; for there must be hoeing and weeding once or twice each month, or oftener, during the summer, and they must, as a rule, be watered from time to time. The best plan is to organize a little company of volunteer "forest-rangers" to look after the trees, just as the government officers look after the trees of the national forests. Indeed, your whole enterprise will actually be a part of the National Forest Service.

And don't think for a minute that Uncle Sam won't recognize this. These forest-rangers of the schools whenever, in connection with the planting or care of their trees, they run up against problems they can't solve, write to The Chief Forester, Washington, D. C., and, promptly as the mails can bring it, they get a reply telling them just what to do.