160 MISSOURI HORTICULTURAL SOCIEIY. 



set himself up for a perambulating tailor or clothier sign board or pose 

 as a fancy barber pole ; now I dwell on this part of the programme so 

 strongly for the reason that there is a natural perversity to do this in 

 the wrong way than to do it in the right way for ninety and nine cases 

 out of a hundred who have not been brought up in their youth or 

 taught especially will use their spades like they would use a catapult 

 and wallop as big lumps of dirt as they can hoist against the trees, 

 knocking them out of line and 611 the hole in an uninidignified man- 

 ner, and care should be taken if you have a pig-headed assistaat who 

 is as obstinate and as wise in his own conceit and thinks the old man 

 is a crank and takes sly occassions to hasten the job by keeping up his 

 old habits, just bounce him right then and there. 



Care should be taken to fill the interstices between the roots and 

 rootlets with fine dirt if possible so as to leave no vacant space around 

 the roots or the stem, and care, too, should be taken to press down the 

 dirt with the foot firmly all the way up as the hole is being filled up' 

 and well pressed all around afterwards. This pressing and packing of 

 the soil around the roots and stem of plants and trees is the great 

 secret of the success of man}', and Mr. Douglass of Waukegan, 1 under- 

 stand, whose experience has been great with evergreens, deems the lack 

 of this one precaution as the sole cause of over one-half of the Jailures 

 in making evergreens grow ; he recommends pressing, even a ramming 

 down of the dirt, so as to not injure or bruise the bark or roots. Ladies 

 will find it very beneficial in setting out plants in the garden or potting 

 house plants thus to press firmly and deftly with their fingers even the 

 most delicate plants, and gardeners in setting out tender tomatoes, 

 cabbage and sweet potato plants will find it pays to do so. 



The tree should be planted or set in the ground just as deep as it 

 was grown in the nursery and no deeper, and if planted deeper will 

 retard the growth of the tree very much. The bottom dirt should come 

 in last as it is exposed to the action of light heat, air, moisture, sun- 

 shine and frosts, it will soon become as rich as the top soil thrown in 

 below, thus giving the young tree every opportunity to draw food and 

 sustenance from the soil within its reach. 



I am convinced that on our wide prairies where the winds have 

 full sweep, it will pay the orchardist to set out wind-breaks of quick 

 growing forest trees, not only on the north side of thj orchards, but on 

 the south and west as well, as often in our winters at least in years 

 past the warm southwest wind comes with a warm breath and forces 

 our trees into premature bloom, and thus are nipped by late frosts. I 

 have noticed more than one season the fact, that when our fruits were 

 partially killed that they were less injured on the northeast side, and 



