328 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



BROADCASTIN'G AND MONUMENT NURSERY 



free air for the tops. 1 first made this 

 crate in the spring of 1908 and have 

 found it much stronger and more satis- 

 factory than any other crate of equal 

 weight. This crate is quickly con- 

 structed, and when used once is usually 

 destroyed. 



As National Forest and commercial 

 nursery shipments increase economy 

 demands a light durable crate which, 

 when emptied, may be collapsed and re- 

 turned to the nursery for further use. 

 In meeting this demand the principle 

 of cylindrical stacking as described un- 

 der "storage" may best be used as no 

 other system presents the same oppor- 

 tunity of exposing the tops for the 

 necessary amount of air and at the 

 same time keeping the roots moist with 

 so little sphagnum. The cost of shi])- 

 ping will be correspondingly decreased 

 as the weight of the container and 

 necessary ])acking is decreased. 



PLANTING BASKET 



During the first few years of work at 

 the Halsey Nursery it was customary 

 to place the trees in buckets of water 



as soon as they were dug in the nursery. 

 The trees were also carried in buckets 

 containing water when planting was 

 being done in the field. Owing to the 

 sandy nature of the nursery soil very 

 little of it clung to the roots when the 

 trees were taken up, and that was re- 

 moved by the w^ater. The belief came 

 that an efl:'ort should be made to hold 

 as much of the soil on the roots as 

 possible, so the practice of placing 

 them in water was discontinued. There- 

 fore, in ]909, before taking up the trees 

 the beds were soaked, and after digging 

 great care was taken to keep the roots 

 moist with wet sphagnum and burlap. 



The efifort to keep the roots moist 

 without putting them into water led to 

 Planting Assistant LaMoree Besley's 

 devices, the padded nursery box de- 

 scri])ed above and the planter's basket, 

 since used with great success. 



The P.esley I'lanting Basket is 12 

 inches wide. 20 inches long, and 8 

 inches deep and made of light galva- 

 nized iron, having two handles as a 

 market basket, and 4 short legs con- 

 sisting of stove bolts 1 inch long 



