ESTABLISHING FORESTS BY PLANTING 



403 



lifting, transportation, and planting carried on as a continuous 

 operation. When the stock is lifted with a trowel or ordinary 

 spade and the balls are more or less variable and irregular in 

 shape, the planting hole should be sufficiently large so that the 

 plant with the attached ball can be set at the proper depth with- 

 out breaking or loosening the soil about the roots. In all cases, 

 the soil of the planting hole and the ball should come into intimate 

 contact, leaving no spaces for the air to enter and dry out the plant 

 (Fig. 111). 



When small plants are lifted with the trowel, they are usually 

 set upright in a flat or shallow box. By proper manipulation of the 



A B 



FIG. 111. 



A.. Balled plant properly planted. 

 B. Balled plant improperly planted. 



trowel in lifting, an inverted cone-shaped ball of suitable size is 

 secured. If the soil proves too loose to hold together, one or two 

 handf uls of moist clay may be wrapped about the small ball before 

 placing it in the box. The plants are transported to the planting 

 site in flats or boxes and removed one at a time as they are re- 

 quired for planting. The hoe and spade are often used in lifting 

 and setting larger plants with attached balls when the distance of 

 transport is very short. Often in natural regeneration plants are too 

 close together in some places, while blanks occur in others. Both 

 the hoe and spade are used in shifting some of the plants from the 

 overdense places to those where natural regeneration has failed. 



The difficulty experienced in keeping the ball intact during 

 transport and planting has led in some instances to the develop- 

 ment of special tools for lifting and planting, and in others to the 

 growing of small stock in flats, pots, or other receptacles, which at 

 the time of planting are taken to the field and the plants with the 



