140 Management of Nurseries. 



of growing buds or foliage. For the same reason all other sprouts, 

 except from the inserted bud, should be kept constantly and closely 

 rubbed off. 



About midsummer or a little later the projecting stubs (already 

 mentioned in the chapter on Budding) should be carefully pared 

 down to the growing shoot. The sooner this work is done the bet- 

 ter, that the cut surface may heal over, provided the shoot has become 

 strong enough to prevent the danger of breaking out. 



Digging or Lifting the Trees. When nursery trees have grown 

 sufficiently for removal and transplanting, they may be taken up any 

 time between the cessation of growth in autumn and its recom- 

 mencement in spring, when the air is not freezing and the ground is 

 open. If a whole row is to be lifted at a time, the labor may be les- 

 sened by first ploughing a furrow away from the row on each side. 

 Then two spades made of steel and strong enough to bear the 

 full weight of a laborer are placed on opposite sides of the tree at a 

 distance of a foot or more from it. The blades, which are at least 

 fifteen inches long, are thrust downwards to their full length into 

 the soil under the tree. A lifting motion raises it with the principal 

 roots entire. Spades for this purpose, costing several dollars each, 

 are manufactured only by the best edge-tool makers in the country. 

 Before or at the time of removal the trees should be marked with 

 wooden labels furnished with copper-wire to fasten them to the limb. 

 They are made of pine or other suitable wood, about half an 

 inch wide, three inches long, and one-twentieth of an inch thick. A 

 very thin coating of white-lead paint applied just before writing the 

 name with a common black-lead pencil renders the letters perma- 

 nent ; but they will last a year or two if the letters are written on a 

 moistened surface. If written dry they wash out in a few weeks. 



Packing for transportation. Several million fruit trees are every 

 year purchased by the farmers of our country. A large majority of 

 these are conveyed long distances from the nursery by railway. 

 Much of their safety from injury on the road, and their consequent 

 success when set out, depends on the manner of packing. Trees 

 may be packed so as . to open from the bundle or box, after being 

 tumbled over iron rails a thousand miles or more, as fresh, plump, 

 healthy, and uninjured, as the moment they were lifted from the mel- 

 low soil ; and they are sometimes packed so as to become bruised, 

 barked, and hopelessly shrivelled before they have travelled a tenth 

 part of that distance. 



The farmers who pay the three million dollars yearly for fruit trees, 

 should understand well the difference between good and bad packing. 



