42 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



rest in summer, will not fail to pro- 

 duce its large white flowers all winter 

 through. — Primrose, in Western Hor- 

 ticulturist. 



HOW TO PLANT TREES. 



BY N. R0BRRT80N, GOVERNMENT GROUNDS, OTTAWA. 



A great deal has been written and 

 said about tree planting. Some advise 

 one way, some another. I will give 

 you my method, with which I have 

 been very successful, and, as it differs 

 somewhat from the usual mode, may 

 be interesting to some of your readers. 

 I go into the woods, select a place 

 where it is thick with strong, young, 

 healthy, rapid-growing trees. I com- 

 mence by making a trench across so as 

 I will get as many as I want. I may 

 have to destroy some untiLI get a right 

 start. I then undermine, taking out 

 the trees as I advance ; this gives me 

 a chance not to destroy the roots. I 

 care nothing about the top, because I 

 cut them into what is called poles ei^ht 

 or ten feet long. Sometimes I draw 

 them out by hitching a team when I 

 can get them so far excavated that I 

 can turn them down enough to hitch 

 above where I intend to cut them off; 

 by this method I often get almost the 

 entire root. I have three particular 

 points in this : good root, a stem with- 

 out any blemish, and a rapid growing 

 tree. This is seldom to be got where 

 most people recommend trees to be 

 taken from — isolated ones on the out- 

 side of the woods ; they are genemlly 

 scraggy and stunted, and to get their 

 roots you would have to follow a long 

 way to get at the fibres on their points, 

 without which they will have a hard 

 struggle to live. Another point re- 

 commended is to plant so that the tree 

 will stand in the direction it was be- 

 fore being moved ; that I never think 

 about, but always study to have the 

 longest and most roots on the side 



where the wind will be strongest, 

 which is generally the west, on an 

 open exposure. 



For years I was much against this 

 system of cutting trees into poles, and 

 fought hard against one of the most 

 successful tree planters in Canada about 

 this pole business. I have trees plant- 

 ed under the system described that have 

 many strong shoots six and eight feet 

 long — Hard Maple, Elm, &c. — under 

 the most unfavorable circumstances. 

 In planting, be particular to have the 

 hole into which you plant much larger 

 than your roots ; and be sure you draw 

 out all your roots to their length before 

 you put on your soil; clean away all 

 the black, leafy soil about them, for if 

 that is left, and gets once dry, you will 

 not easily wet it again. Break down 

 the edges of your holes as you progress, 

 not to leave them as if they were con- 

 fined in a flower pot ; and when finish- 

 ed, put around them a good heavy 

 mulch, I do not care what of — sawdust, 

 manure, or straw. This last you can 

 keep by throwing a few spadefuls of 

 soil over ; let it pass out over the edges 

 of your holes at least one foot. 



I have no doubt that the best time 

 to plant is the fall, as, if left till 

 spring, the trees are too far ad- 

 vanced before the frost is out of the 

 ground ; and by fall planting the soil 

 gets settled about the roots, and they 

 go on with the season. 



Trees cut like poles have another 

 great advantage. For the first season 

 they require no stakes to guard against 

 the wind shaking them, which is a ne- 

 cessity with a top ; for depend upon it, 

 if your tree is allowed to sway with 

 the wind, your roots will take very lit- 

 tle hold that season, and may die, often 

 the second year, from this very cause. 



All who try this system will find out 

 that they will get a much prettier 

 headed tree, and much sooner see a 



