CHAPTER IV. 



Transplanting to the Nursery. 



When the young trees have completed their first year's growth 

 they should be transplanted to the nursery. April and May are 

 generally considered the best months in which to transplant 

 the young trees, the latter month being thought by many the 

 best of all the year, for the reasons that the ground is then suffi- 

 ciently warm, and that this month is more or less cloudy or 

 foggy here ( in Los Angeles ) and comparatively free from cold 

 winds. 



The preparing and laying out of a piece of ground for a nur- 

 sery should be properly done. A little extra work at this time 

 will be well repaid in the future. The rows should run north 

 and south, to expose the whole surface of the ground to the full 

 force of the sun's rays during a great portion of the day. The 

 rows should be four feet apart, and the trees a foot apart in the 

 rows. The ground should be in the best possible condition ; if 

 to be irrigated subsequently, it will well repay the outlay of time 

 and labor to make it as nearly even as it can conveniently be 

 made, by irrigating before planting, cultivating again before 

 planting, and leveling all uneven places, that the irrigating may 

 thereafter be comparatively a pleasure. If the work be care- 

 lessly and hurriedly done it will be a source of annoyance and 

 vexation for a long time sometimes during the entire exist- 

 ence of the nursery. 



After having prepared the ground for spacing and laying out, 

 it should be laid out in convenient sections for removing the 

 trees. The length of the rows should never exceed three hun- 

 dred feet, at each end of which, and running at right angles to 

 them, there should be a space of about fifteen feet to admit the 



