328 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for fruit-growiog; the Missouri Pacific railroad passing as it does 

 through the northern part of the county, with a branch extending 

 through the county to the southwest from Jefferson City, assures us 

 quick and^cheap transportation for all our surplus fruits to the markets 

 of the great iforthwest, where the climate is unfavorable to fruit 

 culture. 



Let those who wish to engage in the fruit industry join our society 

 and attend our meetings, as well as those of the State Society, that we 

 may profit and learn by our past experience. 



Care of Newly Planted Trees. 



By A. J. Davis, Jefferson City. 



Our worthy secretary has assigned to me the duty of preparing 

 a paper on this subject, and here it is. What I don't know on this 

 subject would take a long paper to tell, but what little I do know can 

 be condensed into a very small space, as my experience, what little I 

 have had, has been almost exclusively confined to Cole county, and 

 within a distance of five miles of Jefferson ;,City. Perhaps it would 

 not be out of place to describe soil, lay of land and mode of trans- 

 planting. Soil formation is that which is usually found where the sec- 

 ond magnesian limestone forms the foundation, namely, mulatto soil 

 underlaid with a strata of clay intermixed with flint and sandstone, 

 with more or less iron ; this in turn is underlaid with a strata of tough 

 clay entirely free from rock, and lying immediately on top of stratafied 

 rock. Lay of land slopes east, southeast and south ; depth of soil 

 formation above stratified rocks varies from eighteen inches to four 

 feet. This in brief is the description of the land on which I planted 

 last spring 152 fruit trees. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



In March, 1873, that veteran horticulturist, Prof. A. A. Bloomer, 

 gave me my first lesson in transplanting trees, and I have followed 

 that plan ever since. I remove top-soil from about one yard square. 

 I then remove sub-soil so that the hole will be at least two feet deep, 

 throwing top-soil on one side of the hole and sub-soil on the other. I 

 then finely pulverize the top soil and shovel enough back into the cen- 

 ter of the hole, making a mound, so that the tree will stand about the 

 same depth as it grew in the nursery, or perhaps one inch deeper. I 

 then place a tree on top of this mound, having some one to hold the 

 tree in place. I take my hands and fill in among the roots finely pul- 



