20 PRACTICAL TREE-PLANTING IN OPERATION. 



ures in transplanting evergreens. The rules laid down for the handling 

 of deciduous trees when received from the nursery need not be changed 

 for conifers, but they must be followed with very much more care and 

 exactness. It is necessary that no delay shall occur during shipment 

 and that the stock should be taken care of immediately upon reaching 

 its destination. The planter must not let anything whatever interfere 

 with the immediate unpacking, puddling, and heeling in of the stock. 

 Heel in the trees in a cool place i>rotected from sun and Avind, and 

 await a favorable day for planting. The stock should be on hand by 

 the time the ground ceases to freeze, and should be planted in the first 

 good planting weather thereafter. It is unwise to delay, for another 

 favorable time may not come. Good planting weather should be con- 

 strued to mean a time when the soil is well supplied with moisture, and 

 a day when the sun is obscured by clouds and the atmosphere moist 

 and still. Setting the trees is the final act in a very important series 

 of movements. Perform it as though everything in the success of the 

 trees were dependent upon it. See that the roots are kept moist all 

 the time, that the holes are ample for them, and that good soil is firmly 

 packed about them. Usually the best success is attained by planting 

 evergreens very close together, growing them, particularly in prairie 

 regions, under partial shade for one year after they are received from 

 the nursery, and placing them in the permanent location the following 

 spring. It is sometimes necessary to clip the side branches of ever- 

 greens that the tops may be reduced in proportion to the roots. Never 

 allow the leader to be injured in any way. 



PREPARATION OF THE GROUND. 



Trees succeed best upon land which has been thoroughly subdued 

 from the wild condition. Four or five years of cultivation should usu- 

 ally precede the planting of trees on most prairie soils. After the 

 first breaking of the sod, which is properly very shallow, the plowings 

 should be successively deepened until 7 or 8 inches of the surface soil 

 have been mellowed by cultivation and weathering. The growing of 

 farm crops, especially deep rooting crops such as corn, helps much to 

 prepare the ground for the reception of trees. In the fall previous to 

 planting, the land should be plowed deeply and left rough over winter. 

 In the spring it should be worked into a mellow condition and marked 

 for planting. An implement such as a corn marker may be used, but 

 in many portions of the West a furrow made with a plow or lister is to 

 be recommended. The rows should be carefully spaced by measure- 

 ment rather than by guess. If the rows are correctly spaced and 

 staked it is usually a very easy matter to run them very nearly straight. 

 If the soil tends to dry out rapidly the furrows should not be made far 

 ahead of the planting. 



In almost all cases it is necessary to space the trees by measure- 

 ment in the rows. This may be easily done by means of a check 



