208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



ceed. The resulting young plants are exposed to many enemies 

 and must compete with other well-established plants which sur- 

 round them. If seeds are used they should be planted in rows 

 about nine inches apart, near the surface, in a box of good 

 loam, where they can be watched, weeded and cared for, or in 

 a well-prepared bed surrounded with boards and covered with 

 "cellar wire" netting to keep out mice, rabbits, squirrels and 

 other enemies. If planted in the fall they should be mulched 

 the first winter. When they have outgrown this little nursery 

 they may be replanted in nursery rows or set in the ground 

 where they are to remain. 



Plants from the nurseryman, if well cared for and properly 

 packed, should be moist about the roots when received. The 

 bundles should be unpacked as soon as possible, the bunches 

 loosened enough so that all the roots may come in contact 

 with the earth that is to receive them and they should be 

 "heeled in" or covered at once in a trench in moist earth on 

 the north side of a building or in a cool cellar. A brief ex- 

 posure to sun and wind is enough to destroy both root hairs 

 and rootlets. If at all dry when received the roots should 

 be immersed in water before heeling in. Plants thus treated 

 may be left with safety while the ground is being prepared to 

 receive them. Young trees arriving with the roots dried out 

 will sometimes recover if the top be cut back severely and the 

 entire tree immersed for a few days in moist earth before 

 planting. 



The poorest possible way to set out a tree is to dig a little 

 hole in old sod and set the tree in it. 



The best way is to set all trees in land that has been well 

 cultivated and manured for at least two or three years previous 

 to the setting. Vigorous young trees from one to three feet high 

 will make a better growth when transplanted than those that 

 are older. There is no advantage for our purpose in bringing 

 larger trees from the nursery. Trees may be started w^ell in 

 poor gravelly land by digging out a hole about two feet deep 

 and large enough to hold a cartload of loam, in which the tree 

 is set. 



When setting out trees it is well to plow or trench the soil 

 deeply and fine it well. I have had excellent success on poor 



