Between high school and college I worked for the reforestation division of a timber company Willamette, and after they had logged these large tracts of land (they clear cut most)... we would go in and kill the rest of the timber (mostly trash trees and bent or hollows). We cut a ring around the tree with a hatchet and then another guy came along behind us and squirted a chemical in that cut that did the tree in.
We did that all summer... then in the fall they would cut fire stops around those big tracts of land with bulldozier, and we would burn it...
Then in the late fall and winter months we planted pines, mostly loblollie pines, and a few other varieties.
We started working around 7 am and would finish by noon most days and planted 1500 pines per day like that. Got paid 60.00 for planting those 1500 pine trees.
We used what we called a pine setter, a manual hand tool, you basically slammed into the ground and worked it back then forward to open up a hole, then you put the little pine seedling in the hole (roots in - being careful not to J root them), once in the hole we slammed the blade off that pine setter in behind the hole and pushed it forward to fill the hole and then we stomped it to set the dirt around the roots good...
Took 3 steps and did that again... until we were done.
In the summer months when were hacking all of those rings around the trees... there were 25 or so guys working in a long line, and we found every yellow jacket and hornets nest in the woods, and killed several copperheads each week and usually a couple of rattlers.
That was back in the early 80's.
We often found ginseng during the day while working and would stay after work and dig.
Dracs - good luck with your plantings.
TNHunter
