178 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



inches long-, with which he tnakes the holes six inches apart. The 

 boy inserts the trees at the right depth, and then the dibble is driven 

 into the ground about four or five inches from the hole at an angle 

 of thirty degrees and pressed toward the tree, thus firmly fixing it 

 in place, and as the dibble is withdrawn the man gives a finishing 

 touch with iiis foot, covering the hole and pressing the soil more 

 firmly around the tree. The most important part in planting small 

 trees or stock of any other kind is in firming the soil closely around 

 the root of the tree in such manner that there will be no air spaces 

 left. By this method, a man and a boy will plant several thousand 

 trees in a day. 



The cultivator should follow the planting at once as close to 

 the trees as possible not to injure them, and this cultivation should 

 be continued each week until the last of August, never neglecting 

 to remove all small weeds and grass from the rows as often as they 

 appear. Only thorough cultivation will procure a good growth the 

 first year after transplanting. 



Pruning. Side shoots and forked tops will soon appear; the first 

 must not be pruned away but pinched back to within three to five 

 inches of the tree, and with the latter the weaker should be cut back 

 to give the other a chance to grow a leader. The leaving a portion 

 of all side shoots will aid the tree to make a robust, stocky growth- 

 It is always desirable to grow the tree as rapidly as possible, but 

 not so fast that the height is out of proportion to the size of the body, 

 and great care should be exercised in pruning the first year after 

 transplanting, or this growth will be too slender, causing them to 

 becoine top heavy, necessitating heading back or the use of stakes 

 to keep them from bending and growing with curves in their bodies. 

 A stocky growth will procure more straight, symmetrical, well bal- 

 anced trees than can be had from those that have grown more slen- 

 der and rapidly at first. 



The second year after transplanting, shallow cultivation should 

 be commenced early and continued each week through the growing 

 season, that the surface of the soil may at all times be well pulver- 

 ized, thereby stimixlating as great a growth as possible and prevent- 

 ing the injurious effects of a summer drouth. Early attention to 

 pruning must be given after new growth commences by shortening 

 in all superfluous side shoots and trimming off tops to a main leader. 

 Those trees that have a tendency to grow too slim in their bodies 

 should be cut back to a good, strong bud located on the upper side 

 of the tree, thus ensuring a straight growth. By fall these trees 

 ought to have grown to a height of five to seven feet and should 

 then be once more transplanted into rows five feet wide, the trees 

 not nearer than eighteen inches, thereby giving proper room for 

 expansion in root and top. In digging, caution should be exercised 

 not to break or injure the main roots near the body of the tree, 

 always retaining as many of the small fibrous roots as possible, and 

 as fast as the trees are lifted have the roots pi'Otected by covering 

 with a few shovelfuls of earth. It is best at this time to sort the 

 trees into first, second and third sizes, and all that are crooked» 

 stunted or with blemishes in root, body or top and that cannot be 



