250 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



When enough for a day's planting is thus col- 

 lected, we go home, stack them in the shade, and the 

 next morning the resetting begins ! The bags are 

 not opened until they are by the hole in which the trees 

 are to be placed, which, by the way, is always made 

 and used after the directions you gave us for rose plant- 

 ing; and I'm coming to agree with you that the suc- 

 cess in gardening lies more than half in the putting 

 under ground, and that the proper spreading and 

 securing of roots in earth thoroughly loosened to allow 

 new roots to feel and find their way is one of the 

 secrets of what is usually termed "luck" ! 



This may sound like a very easy way of acquiring 

 trees, but it sometimes takes an hour to loosen a sturdy 

 pine of four feet. Of course a relentless hand that 

 stops at nothing, with a grub-axe and spade, could do 

 it in fifteen minutes, but the roots would be cut or 

 bruised and the pulling and tugging be so violent that 

 not a bit of earth would cleave, and thus the fatal 

 drying process set in almost before the digging was 

 completed. 



Larry first loosens the soil all about the tree with 

 a crowbar, dislodging any binding surface stones 

 in the meantime ; then the roots are followed to the 

 end and secured entire when possible, a bit of detec- 



