16 



MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 





takes a big chance. Some trees that were dug after I left in one 

 nursery were infected. I discovered this when I came to plant. 

 I burned about fifty, some with galls as big as my fist. Where 

 the galls were small, I cut them out, disinfected with bichloride 

 of mercury and planted. But these trees have never done well, 

 and I have since replaced a number of them. Where small shoots 



are seen coming up 

 through the ground 

 around the crown of the 

 tree, root gall will gen- 

 erally be found. It pays 

 to investigate such cases. 

 My planting was done 

 with dynamite. A half 

 stick of forty per cent, 

 was exploded in each 

 hole. The holes were 

 marked twenty-five feet 

 apart each way. The 

 top soil was removed to 

 a depth of about a foot. 

 Then an iron crowbar 

 was driven about two 

 feet into the subsoil, a 

 cartridge placed in the 

 bottom, the hole packed 

 with dirt and the fuse 

 fired. If the cartridge is 

 not placed deep enough, 

 most of the shot will be 

 wasted in the air. After the dynamited hole was cleaned out, 

 the top soil first removed was replaced in the bottom, and the 

 tree set. The trees were taken from my storage cellar and car- 

 ried about the orchard in a barrel half full of water on a barrel 

 cart. Bichloride of mercury was dissolved in the water, to pre- 

 vent the spread of any infection from one tree to another. 



The cost was about six cents per tree for dynamite. The 

 total cost of planting that way was probably somewhat greater 

 than by the use of a spade alone. But the work can be done very 

 quickly by men who understand handling the explosive. 



I have since had planting done by spade, where it was neces- 

 sary to replace trees, but, of course, in each instance the spot had 



*%Sl£^^ 



Tree No. 78. Virginia crab, top-worked to Jonathan 

 Photo taken July, 1916. 



