336 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



a tendency to keep the soil loose and to furnish food for the 

 trees. Never put manure about the roots of your trees 

 when setting, unless you mean to kill tliem. Bring in your 

 finely pulverized soil carefully among the fibrous roots, leav- 

 ing your tree a trifle lower in the soil than where it stood 

 before, and never mass a pile of dirt up around the trunk 

 of your tree, as some have recommended, until they can 

 tell you wherein lies the benefit, and be sure you understand 

 their philosophy. 



Allow me to say just here that, in my opinion, as a pre- 

 ventive against mice no remedy is more sure than thor- 

 oughly treading the snow about your trees, especially if the 

 ground is frozen. Other applications, such as are often 

 recommended, like staves or tarred paper tied around the 

 tree just above the ground may be good, but are attended 

 with greater expense and labor. 



After your trees are properly set jow will find it no loss 

 of money and but little of time to use all your waste suds 

 about yom* young trees. It contains more or less alkali, 

 one. of the best ingredients for tree nourishment, in my 

 view. And I would also recommend, as I have previously 

 done, the washing of yoiuig trees from the ground as 

 far up into the limbs as can be done without injury to them. 

 Let the wash be one quart of soft soap to five or six quarts 

 of water, applied with a coarse cloth, rubl)ing the body of 

 the tree sufiiciently hard to remove every particle of scurf 

 or moss from the bark, which you will find to give the 

 tree a beautiful green appearance, and looking as though 

 you had given it a coat of varnish. It certainly does no 



