CHAPTER VI. 



Best Time and Depth to Plant. 



I AM afraid that many persons will make the mistake of 

 planting their close root-pruned trees too deep on level 

 ground, under the erroneous impression that, having 

 so little root, such a tree will find it difficult to establish 

 and sustain itself at first. If they will but reflect that the 

 root-graft and the cutting, which will strike, have no such 

 trouble, and that nature plants her seeds upon the bare sur- 

 face of the firm ground, and trusts to the wind, with leaves 

 and dust, and the rain, to splash a thin covering around or 

 over them, they must see that a strong, close root-pruned 

 young tree, with far more vital energy than a seed, cannot 

 fail to take care of itself, if set five or six inches deep in soil 

 at all moist and well firmed. Of course, if it be dry that 

 depth, the trees must be watered when set. But this applies 

 to sections of the country favored with a reasonably regular 

 rainfall, and more particularly to level and only slightly roll- 

 ing ground. On elevated uplands and hills, the depth should 

 be increased a little, and all through the dryer, hilly half of 

 our state, comprising West and Northwest Texas, a depth of 

 one foot would be none too much. Of course, this would 

 require a total length of eighteen to twenty-four inches of 

 tree when set. That deep planting is best all through the 

 latter portions of the state, with its rocky, limestone subsoils, 

 was clearly demonstrated by Wm. Cook, of Lampasas, one 

 of the most successful and observing fruit-growers I ever met. 

 I camped for a month near his orchard, in the suburbs of 

 Lampasas, fifteen years ago, and was told by him that the 

 finest, longest-lived and most productive trees of all kinds he 

 ever grew were planted two feet deep, right up on the rocky 

 hillside and top, and that he had practically drilled the holes 

 out of the almost solid limestone soft rock. A little top soil 



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