342 



SEEDING AND PLANTING 



Photograph by C. R. Pettis 



FIG. 99. Shipping baskets for coniferous stock. 



11. Packing in Wire Crates. Neuhaus 1 advocates the use 

 of packages made from wide-meshed wire netting for shipping 

 coniferous seedlings and small transplants. Such packages are 

 .inexpensive, durable, light, and easily handled. Willow baskets 

 and boxes are considered best for export and long transport, but 

 for ordinary transport when the stock is not more than a week in 

 transport wire crates are equally useful. The ordinary inch-mesh 

 galvanized wire netting, 1 \ or 2 feet wide, should be purchased in 

 rolls and cut in lengths determined by the diameter of the bundles 

 of trees. The netting is covered with fine balsam or hemlock twigs 

 upon which is spread a layer of damp moss where the roots come. 

 The bundles of seedlings or transplants are placed upon the moss 

 with the roots overlapping and the tops outward in either direction. 

 A stick 8 inches longer than the width of the netting is fastened 

 along either side by weaving it in and out through the mesh. The 

 two sticks are brought together and securely tied. The bundle 

 when tied is cylindrical in shape and as long as the width of the 

 netting. When properly packed the roots are well protected and 

 the tops are freely exposed to the air. From 1000 to^ 5000 plants 

 can be packed in a single bundle. Care should be taken that the 



1 Neuhaus, K.: Neue Verpackungsmethode fiir Pflanzen. (Schweizerische 

 Zeitschrift fiir Forstwesen, S. 195. 1912.) 



