HOW TO PLANT FRUIT TREES 101 



heeled in until the proper soil condition returns, even if it be rather 

 late, for a little extra attention to cultivation for retention of moisure 

 will pull through a late-planted tree. 



These remarks are of very wide application in this State, but there 

 are exceptions. In our high altitudes, where the climate approaches 

 Eastern conditions in cold and snowfall, practice in planting will also 

 approximate Eastern methods. In regions of very heavy rainfall and 

 on the upper coast where the rainy season and moisture from fogs 

 are prolonged late in the spring, late planting is safer and surer than 

 in the warmer, drier parts of the State. 



Another consideration, too, is the slope of the land to be planted. 

 Our hillside fruit growers in regions of heavy winter storms some- 

 times plant slopes, which, if plowed deep in the fall, are apt to wash 

 badly during the heavy winter rains. On such slopes it is better to 

 plow late in the winter, after the heavy storms are over, and plant 

 when the soil has become warm and mellow. 



THE OPERATION OF PLANTING 



Tree planting should be carefully and well done, but it need not 

 necessarily be slowly done. With a kind soil deeply worked and 

 just in the right condition for planting, trees may be put in well and 

 rapidly. Two men work together at a decided advantage. Using 

 the straight "tree-setter," which has already been described, one 

 takes each end, and as soon as the center notch encloses the tree 

 stake, the setter stakes are pushed into the soil, the "setter" is laid 

 aside, and the two men, taking up their shovels or spades, begin first 

 around the outside of the hole, throwing all the surface dirt 

 on the same side of the hole and leaving the tree stake to be thrown 

 out last, because its remaining serves to center the hole. The lower 

 soil is now thrown to the other side of the hole, and when depth 

 enough is reached, the soil at the bottom of the hole is loosened 

 up to the depth of a shovel thrust, without removing it from the hole. 

 A shovelful or two of the surface soil is thrown into the center of 

 the hole, being allowed to remain higher in the center, because this 

 generally furnishes a cushion about the natural shape of the under 

 surface of the root system of the tree. Now replace the tree-setter 

 upon its end pegs, let one man hold the tree with its stem in the central 

 notch in the setter, and while the other man shovels in the surface earth 

 rather slowly at first, the man who holds the tree with one hand will 

 spread out the roots, pulverize and pack the earth around them, being 

 sure that no cavities are left under any of the roots, but that their 

 surfaces everywhere come into contact with the soil, and that they 

 spread out as widely as possible. The earth is being continuously 

 put in by the shoveler, and when the roots are covered the planter 

 steps in the hole and carefully firms' the soil down upon the roots by 

 tramping (especially at the cut ends of the roots around the outer 

 side of the hole), at the same time judging of the perpendicularity of 

 the tree with his eye. When this is done, both men use their shovels 

 and fill up the hole with the earth taken from below, being sure to leave 



