278 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PLANTING AND CARE OF EVERGREENS. 



W. F. NAYLOR, WRIGHTSTOWN. 



The most beautiful tree that can be planted for the year round is 

 the evergreen. Years ago, when I was a boy at home in Steele 

 County, Minn., nursery agents would come to father to sell trees 

 and say to him, plant shallow and don't prune, or the tree will die, 

 and plant as they grew before — the same side to the south, etc. That 

 is all nonsense. Other men around here say, never cultivate an ever- 

 green tree or it will surely die. All wrong, as I have found out by 

 experience. Some say, dig all evergreens in June. All a mistake. 



I think it just as easy to move a spruce, balsam fir or jack pine 

 as to move any other kind of a tree, and it is just as sure to live. I 

 planted three wagon loads the spring of 1900, and though it was very 

 dry until July 3d, I only lost 15 per cent. In an ordinary spring I 

 never lose any. I go to the woods and dig up trees four to six feet 

 high just as early in the spring as I can dig. I take the wagon 

 box half full of straw soaked with water and pack the trees in it as 

 fast as I take them up and leave them right in the wet straw until 

 planted. I plant very deep and cover all roots ten or twelve inches, 

 so they won't be disturbed in cultivating. I prune off all long 

 limbs but never cut the leader nor prume too close to the body of 

 tree, for if a limb is cut close it will never grow again. After I get 

 through planting I start cultivating and cultivate until harvest, or 

 about August ist, about twice a week, and they grow right along. T 

 measured the new growth this year the last day of June, and spruce 

 had made a growth of twenty-three inches and jack pine twenty- 

 eight inches. I would say to all living in a bleak place, plant trees, 

 not the old willow or Lombady poplar, but something much better, 

 white spruce, jack pine and balsam fir. Jack pine is the toughest 

 tree ; it will not break, no matter how windy it is, and in twenty 

 years time it will outgrow wild poplar — for I have them side by 

 side. Some may say it is sandy soil where I have them, but I say, 

 no, it is heavy clay fifty-seven feet deep, and I don't know how much 



further. 



I would like to give a little advice to those that need it. Be very 

 careful where you get your trees. Never buy of men running around 

 with a load of trees ; they may be all right, but the chances are they 

 are dead trees. They may look nice and green, but don't be de- 

 ceived by them. Go or send to some good nurseryman, and you 

 will get good trees to start with, or if you live close enough go to 

 the woods and dig for yourself, for there are plenty for all in this 

 northern part of Minnesota. But be sure and plant plenty of them, 

 and in a few years see how pretty and warm it will be in a cold 

 winter day. 



