ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 63 



taken to procure them from localities corresponding as nearly as may be 

 in climatic and soil conditions to the region where it is proposed to 

 plant them. 



AIDS TO SUCCESS IN PLANTING. 



It will conduce much to success in planting if trees are procured from 

 nurseries rather than from the woodlands or other uncultivated places. 

 In the nursery grounds the soil is in a light and soft condition, and the 

 trees as they grow are frequently transplanted. This occasions a dense 

 root growth close to the stem, and it enables the tree to be taken from 

 the ground with comparatively little danger of breaking the roots, and 

 the replanting is also accomplished with the greater facility. 



Another aid to success, that is, to secure a healthy and vigorous 

 growth of trees, will be found in giving them an ample bed of deeply 

 trenched and well-broken soil when the planting takes place; and if 

 the soil is poor or of too hard and compact a character, by removing 

 it and putting in its place a liberal supply of soil of better structure 

 and abounding in plant food. The present labor and expense involved 

 in doing this will be amply compensated by the appearance of the 

 trees in the subsequent years of their growth. The chief dependence 

 of trees for the promotion of their growth is a sufficient supply of 

 water, out of the constituents of which their bodies are largely built 

 up, and which is the vehicle by means of which the mineral food in the 

 soil is conveyed to all parts of their structure. 



It is more important, therefore, that the soil should be of proper 

 physical structure than that it should abound in desirable mineral 

 ingredients. If the soil is hard or clayey, so that water can not pene- 

 trate it readily, or if it is coarse-grained and very porous, so that water 

 falling upon it sinks rapidly to the depths below, the roots of trees will 

 fail to obtain such a supply of moisture as is needful for a vigorous 

 growth. They will have but a feeble vitality. Hence the need of 

 having a soil which is of such texture as readily to admit the rains 

 which fall upon it and yet such as to prevent the water from rapidly 

 passing out of reach of the roots. In proportion as the soil is fine it 

 presents a larger surface of moisture to the minute roots of plants. 



It will conduce to the proper supply of moisture also if the ground 

 above the tree roots, especially at the first planting, is covered with a 

 mulch of straw or litter of some sort which, by shielding it from sun 

 and wind, will prevent the evaporation of moisture from the soil and to 

 that extent increase the amount at the disposal of the trees. Few 

 understand how much water is removed from the ground by the influ- 

 ence of the sun and winds, especially the latter. One of the chief diffi- 

 culties in the way of securing a desirable tree growth in many parts of 

 the country, particularly on the Western plains, arises from the prev- 

 alence of strong and often hot winds. In the existing forests the trees 

 are protected from the effects of evaporation by the canopy of shade 

 afforded by their leafy tops and by the mulch of fallen leaves accumu- 



