...an effective, but slightly costly means of producing saplings in Minecraft.
You need iron for shears and about a half stack of leaves from the kind of tree you want saplings of. Lay out the leaves and break them with the shears repeatedly. You'll get more saplings this way, but you have to use the shears to break them so that you can get the leaves back. It costs a bit of iron to do, but is not a bad way to get more of that rare tree you want.
