USE OF MANURE AT PLANTING \Q$ 



conditions as water-settling; it may insure growth of the tree when 

 otherwise it might be seriously injured by drouth. With puddled 

 roots especial care should also be taken to leave the surface loose to 

 prevent evaporation. In making puddle, use loamy soil and never 

 adobe, for in dry time the latter will bake around the roots and may 

 kill the tree. 



The Use of Manure. Never put manure in the hole with the 

 tree. Sometimes the injunction is, Never put anything but well 

 rotted manure in the hole. It is better to put in none of any kind. 

 Manure should be spread upon the ground after planting. The rains 

 then leach it out and it may be turned under in the spring plowing. 

 There are, however, light soils in the drier parts of the State where 

 turning under manure in the spring is a disadvantage, as it makes the 

 soil too porous and facilitates evaporation. On such soils, extra care 

 should be taken to have the manure thoroughly decomposed by com- 

 posting, and all applications should be made either late in the spring 

 to act as a mulch in the summer, or if a mulch is not thought desir- 

 able, apply the manure in the fall before the first rains, so that it may 

 be turned under at the first plowing and have the whole winter for 

 disintegration. In this dry climate there is often misapprehension, 

 especially among newcomers, as to what is well-rotted manure. 

 They take the scrapings of the corral, which have been trampled 

 and pulverized, but which, having been kept dry, have never rotted. 

 When this is put in the holes with the tree and then moistened by 

 rainfall or irrigation, it will burn the tree, the first sign of injury 

 being the drying up of the leaves. It is, on the whole, safest and 

 best to put nothing but well-pulverized surface soil around the 

 roots of the young tree. This injunction applies also to the use of 

 commercial fertilizers in pushing the growth of young trees and 

 vines. For this purpose about three pounds of "complete fertilizer" 

 may be used. It should be scattered over a few feet of surface around 

 the tree after growth has started in the spring. For the same pur- 

 pose also one-half to one pound of nitrate of soda or of sulphate of 

 ammonia instead of the "complete fertilizer'' making the applica- 

 tion in the same way and being particularly careful not to use too 

 much and to scatter it well over the space designated. A young tree 

 which is growing pretty well can stand more nitrate than one which 

 is on the point of dying but it should not be put in the soil around 

 the roots. 



Depth of Planting. The depth to which trees should be set has 

 always been a matter of discord among the planters. The safest rule 

 under ordinary circumstances is to get the tree as nearly as possible 

 the same depth it stood in the nursery row ; that is, so as to have it 

 stand that way when the ground has settled, or the surface returned 

 by cultivation to its normal level. In planting in loose soil in the 

 drier! parts of the State, it is often desirable to plant rather low, 

 because several inches depth of the surface soil become dry, and the 

 roots should be well in the moist layer. But if irrigation is to be 

 practised, it must be remembered that the water level will rise when 

 the soil is saturated and deep-planted trees are apt to suffer. The 



