208 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



PLANTING TREES IN THE FALL. 



I had my attention aroused last fal] 

 by the unusual trade in fruit trees. It 

 was more general than in any previous 

 fall within my recollection, and much 

 more even than last spring. It is but 

 a few years since nurserymen induced 

 farmers to purchase stock for fall setting, 

 but the practice now seems to have 

 grown in favor with farmers generally. 

 They only needed to ascertain that the 

 fall is really the most convenient season 

 for such work, in order to attend to it 

 at that season. The trouble with spring 

 planting is that the trees come when 

 the farmer cannot well spare the time 

 to attend to them. Perhaps there is a 

 job on hand which must be finished 

 before anything else can be attended to ; 

 the weather is warm, with drying winds, 

 and every hour that the trees are out of 

 the ground they suffer. When the trees 

 are set in the fall the soil settles and 

 fills the interstices around the roots, 

 and the soil in the immediate vicinity 

 of the trees becomes less susceptible to 

 the effects of drouth. 



Again, the farmer has more time to 

 do this job, in the way it should be 

 done, in the fall. Too much care can- 

 not be expended in procuring and set- 

 ting trees. Opinions in regard to varie- 

 ties may differ, but when it comes to 

 caring for the trees, there is only one 

 way to do it. Too many farmers are 

 quite apt to forget that a tree has a life 

 and a constitution ; that carelessness 

 may destroy the one and impair the 

 other. I think that nurserymen should 

 be very particular in the men they 

 employ to take up trees. I have seen 

 so may trees injured in this respect, 

 that I think it requires as much care 

 to take up a tree as it does to set it out 

 again. Strength is not the best recom- 

 mendation of a man for taking up trees; 

 neither is a faculty for handling a spade 

 the principal accom])lishment of a man 

 employed to set out trees. Perhaps in 



no other job on the farm does skill pay 

 as well, inasmuch as unskilled labor will 

 work so great a loss. It requires two 

 men to set out trees to any advantage, 

 and three are better than two. It is 

 better to have the holes dug, and a 

 bushel of good muck left at each hole, 

 before commencing to set out trees. 



Right here I most earnestly depre- 

 cate the post-hole style of digging h.oles 

 for apple trees. A job that is worth 

 doing at all, is worth doing well, and 

 the roots of growing trees should have 

 plenty of room. The hole should be 

 dug both deeper and wider than is re- 

 quired, in order that a quanity of muck 

 may be put in the bottom, and it should 

 be dug wider on general principles. In 

 setting out trees, when I come upon 

 one which has been mutilated in taking 

 up, I prefer throwing it aside and los- 

 ing it at once, rather than await the 

 doubtful result of setting it out. In 

 setting out trees avoid placing any of 

 the roots in a constrained position. 

 The roots should be placed naturally, 

 and the fine earth pressed firmly around 

 them. With care, no one should lose 

 one tree in one hundred, providing the 

 trees were all right when delivered. 

 Taking all things into consideration, 1 

 would much rather set trees in the 

 fall than in the spring. — P. K. More- 

 land, m Country Gentleman. 



THK BARK LOUSE. 

 Herbert Osborn, of the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College, recommends as renie 

 dies for the scurvy bark louse and the 

 oyster shell louse, kerosene and soap. 

 The kerosene may be used pure where 

 in can be done with safety, but ordin- 

 arily it must be diluted with water. 

 This may be accomplished by forming 

 an emulsion of kerosene and milk (skim- 

 med milk answers well) and then dilut- 

 ing with about an equal quantity of 

 water, or by shaking up a mixture of 

 milk, kerosene and water in equal parts^ 



