1887. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



THE COMPLETE GARDEN.* 



XII. 



BY A WELL-KNOWN HOKTICULTURIST. 



Continued from page 29. 



Heeling-in the TREE.S. Let US now sup- 

 pose that the planting stock ordered from 

 the nursery has arrived at the grounds. As 

 some time must naturally elapse, in ca.se 

 quite a number of trees, etc., are being set, 

 before all can be planted, a first step should 



Fig. 37. Three Tear Tree in the Nursery; dotted 

 line shoiDing place of cutting the mots in digging. 

 Upper igure shoics a one year Tree. 



be to heel them in well by the roots. This 

 for the special purpose of thorough protec- 

 tion against the possibility of the roots dry- 

 ing out; and, to have the trees set con- 

 veniently in a line so that the individuals 

 and their labels can easily be seen, and can 

 be taken out promiscuously as wanted, 

 without unduly exposing the roots of those 

 remaining back. It is to be borne in mind 

 that evaporation goes on constantly from 

 every twig of the tree and from the trunk, 

 as well after as before digging. If then from 

 lack of proper heeling-in, the roots are ex- 

 posed in any way, or if, the soil lies but 

 loosely against them preventing their 

 drawing in moisture, the injury to the tree 

 may be very marked without its being 

 even suspected. Evergreens especially,being 

 in full leaf, are very liable to suffer if atten- 

 tion to these points is disregarded. My 

 method of heeling in trees may thus be 

 described : A trench about one toot deep 

 and two feet wide is dug in mellow soil at 

 one or more points convenient to where the 

 planting is to be done. Into this trench the 

 trees, etc. are stood and fine dirt is sprinkled 

 over and among the roots, to come in con- 

 tact with all parts, finishing by filling in 

 the earth first thrown out. The soil over 

 the roots is then well firmed for laying com- 

 pactly against every root. With such treat- 

 ment they may remain for days, with little 

 harm. Still, good heeling-in must not make 

 one feel easy in delaying planting. 



Pruning and Setting out Trees. Here 

 are matters concerning which there is need 

 of very clear light for the inexperienced, as 

 without doubt nine out of every ten such 

 commit more or less serious blunders in this 

 with bad results. Where the liability to 

 error comes in is, that the average planter, 

 of small or no experience, seems to have an 

 inordinate desire that the top of his tree shall 

 be preserved full and perfect as it came 

 from the nursery, and having little thought 

 of the comparative size and strength of the 

 root beneath. He has not yet learned that 

 it is the extent and vigor of the root which 

 should be the leading consideration in all 

 planting; that if the root be poor, or out of 

 balance with the top it supports, that the 

 future of the tree cannot be promising. 



To gain a right understanding of this sub- 

 ject the annexed engravings will assist. In 



• Copyright, 1887, Popular Oardenlng Publishing Co. 



the act of digging, more roots are invariably 

 lost to ordinary trees, say three years and 

 over old, than one easily appreciates, while 

 the top is not similarly affected. Fig. .'i7 

 goes to illustrate this idea by a cross-sectional 

 view of a nursery tree, the place of cutting 

 the roots in digging being shown by the 

 dotted line. It is seen that the main 

 roots are cut at points that allow of 

 not above one-third to one-half of those 

 being retained, while those lost are mostly 

 the net-work of fine roots. To get a still 

 clearer idea of this, let a circle be scribed on 

 the tloor, one foot from a center (representing 

 a tree) as being the point at which the spade 

 cuts the roots in digging, and another at 

 two and a half feet from the same point as 

 describing the average length of the main 

 roots, and then compare the area inside of 

 the first circle with that between the first 

 and second for realizing how great must be 

 the extent of fine roots remaining back at 

 digging. It is safe to estimate that usually 

 not above one-fourth of all the roots are 

 retained to such a tree in digging. 



It is right in this matter of retaining a 

 large proportion of roots that the advantage 

 of one or two-year old trees in preference to 

 older ones arises. In the upper part of 

 Figure 37 is shown a one-year old nursery 

 tree, with the probable line at which the 

 root would be cut in digging. By compar- 

 ing the percentage of the roots here remain- 

 ing to the tree with the vastly smaller pro- 

 portion retained by the larger tree, it is not 

 ditficult to understand why, with the same 

 care in digging, planting and after culture 

 for both, that the younger should so gener- 

 ally reach maturity in uctiially Icfis time 

 than is re(juired for those some years older. 

 It has long been observed that the greater 

 the experience of a planter the more apt is 

 he to choose young, vigorous trees for setting, 

 while usually the less experience possessed 

 the larger the size of tree demanded. 



But assuming that Figure 37 inside of the 

 dotted line very nearly represents the aver- 

 age nursery tree as regards loss of roots in 



Fig. 38. Planting very 

 badly done, after a 

 prevalent method. 



Fig. 89. Planting well done 

 and with due regard to 

 pruning. 



TWO WAYS OF 8ETTINQ THE TREE OF FIG. 37. 



digging, we may now consider what would 

 constitute good and bad planting of such a 

 tree. Figures .38 and 39 show respectively 

 the same tree, as planted, in the former case 

 about as badly as could be done, yet after a 

 a very prevalent fashion, in the latter set out 

 as a wise planter would do his work. The 

 essential difference of the two methods is 

 easily seen; the first having had regard more 

 to the top, the other to the root. We may 

 assume that the planter of Figure 38 beheld 

 in his tree fresh from the nursery this hand- 

 some top and shape, to interfere with which, 

 by pruning, he could not think of doing for 

 fear of spoiling it. He knew that roots be- 



long under ground, and to accommodate 

 these a hole was easily dug, for as done it 

 was both too narrow and too shallow. It 

 seemed large enough until the tree wa.'f 

 brought into place when it was found nec- 

 essary to cramp and crook the roots to get 

 them in at all, but this was easier done 

 than to enlarge the hole, so it was allowed 

 to answer. Soil was thrown over the roots 

 of course and this no doubt was 

 tramped somewhat, and there 

 stood the tree, so far as appear- 

 ances above ground were con- 

 cerned, as handsome as ever it 

 appeared in the nursery, and the 

 owner congratulating himself on 

 how he was improving his place 

 by tree planting. But how it 

 really compared (top aside) with 

 its former self , the roots now much 

 shortened, tortured and laying 

 in masses, and having air spaces 



beneath them and clods at the 



sides and above, and withal set so ^2"JJ^.t 

 shallow that the crown as well as 

 divers turned up root ends appeared in sight 

 above the natural surface, the two Figures 

 37 and 38 show clearly enough. It is no 

 wonder that following the great amount of 

 such planting always going on, the loss in 

 dead trees annually should be so great. 



But the same tree in the hands of a good 

 planter would fare very differently. His 

 first thought would be to secure something 

 like a corresponding balance between the 

 top and the much shortened roots. Looking 

 over the tree (Figure 37), knife in hand, he 

 would see how numerous branches could 

 come entirely away and the remaining ones 

 be shortened, and his cutting would be in ac- 

 cord something as shown by the small cross 

 marks in this figure. It would end vrith the 

 top being reduced to about the extent of 

 Figure 39. Then in setting the tree he would 

 aim to favor the root in the best manner 

 possible by about the following steps: Step 

 one. Dig the hole both larger and deeper 

 than the roots without any unnatural bend- 

 ing would need. Step two. If the subsoil 

 beneath seemed especially sterile he would 

 throw out a foot or more of it, filling the 

 space with fertile loam, otherwise he would 

 turn over the subsoil, incorporating some 

 old well decayed manure with it, treading 

 all down somewhat. Step three. See that 

 there was plenty of fine earth at the side of 

 the hole, for use in placing every root in con- 

 tact with such. Step four. In bringing 

 the tree to the hole pruning away the bruised 

 ends of any large roots, also cutting oft' any 

 broken parts of roots with a sharp knife. 

 Step five. Begin the planting by throwing 

 in earth where the tree is to stand, and 

 enough so that when the tree was brought in 

 place its crown should be a little below the 

 natural earth line. Step si.r. Placing the 

 tree, and then with great care working the 

 fine earth between the roots, observing to 

 have the latter spread out naturally. In 

 thus filling in soil great stress would be laid 

 on having it packed firmly against the roots 

 in order that these could the more readily 

 absorb moisture, as well as for steadying the 

 top. Indeed if the soil was light and friable 

 at planting time he would find little danger 

 of getting it too firmly packed. 



Such a course of planting would at its 

 completion find the tree in the favorable 

 condition, shown by that of Figure .39. And 

 prvoided the handling of the tree previous 

 to planting was well done and the planting 

 was seasonably performed there would 

 hardly be one chance in a hundred of the 

 tree not succeeding. I commend these 

 figures to the especial attention of all Inex- 

 perienced tree planters. As regards tools 

 for assisting the planting, the earth stick for 

 working the soil between the roots, and the 

 earth rammer, in Figure 40, are very useful. 



