CHAPTER III. 



THE PBEPARATION OF THE GROUND AND THE 

 PREPARATION OF THE OWNER. 



People often have crude ideas about planting. A 

 lady bouglit some roses and went out with a case knife 

 and cut a small hole in the sod, stuck in the bushes not 

 as deep by two inches as when in the nursery, and then 

 said: ^Thank goodness that job is done." Of course 

 they died, and she blamed the rascally nurseryman for 

 sending out stock that would not live. 



There is little use of planting till the ground is ready. 

 It should be in a well pulverized and friable condition 

 so that trees and plants can readily draw food from it. 

 If you leave a piece in grass, or break up the native 

 sod, the soil becomes granulated and does not pack close- 

 ly around the roots, and so cannot feed the plant. The 

 best way would be to manure well and summer fallow. 

 Then you have the soil in the best and most responsive 

 condition. 



You may want to plant near where you have large 

 trees which you wish to save. Now here is a problem. 

 How can you make trees and plants grow in a domain 

 already pre-empted by great, ravenous trees which often 

 send out roots twice as far as they measure in length ? 



You may talk about trusts and monopolies; there is 



