NUBSERY OPERATIONS. 33 



Ground for transplant beds is prepared much the same as for seed 

 beds, except that it may have been freshly fertilized. It is deeply 

 plowed and carefully leveled, but the beds are 6 feet wide, with 20-inch 

 paths between, instead of 4 feet, as in the seed beds. Paths and beds 

 are on the same level. 



Seedlings are dug from their beds with spades. The Feigley tree 

 digger has been tried at Halsey, and while it is cheap and effective 

 for lifting seedlings, it has not always been possible to use it because 

 of the scarcity of work horses. The contrivance does nothing more 

 than lift the entire body of soil in which the roots are located and 

 drop it again, thereby loosening the mass so that the trees are pulled 

 out without much loss of fine roots. It is simply a horizontal, sharp- 

 edged wedge which is run under the trees at any necessary depth 

 down to about 12 inches, taking a strip about 1 foot wide for the 

 entire length of the seed bed. Its disadvantages are that it is diffi- 

 cult to guide accurately, and hence may come too near the surface 

 and cut off the roots too closely. In so far as it cuts merely the tips 

 of the roots it probably does no damage, since root pruning, while 

 not practiced at Halsey, has been used a great deal elsewhere. The 

 digger also loosens the soil to such an extent that the trees must all 

 be taken up very quickly, and since its economic rate of operation is 

 considerably faster than transplanting, some extra labor is required 

 to heel in the seedlings temporarily. Yet with these disadvantages 

 it undoubtedly effects a saving in the cost of transplanting. 



After being loosened with the spade the seedlings are lifted, and the 

 main body of soil shaken from the roots, frreat care is taken, how- 

 ever, to make sure that the fine soil particles are left adhering to the 

 roots and that the finer roots are not broken. Formerly it was the 

 practice to transport trees, not only between the nursery and field, 

 but within the nursery, in buckets or tubs of water. This not only 

 washed all soil from the roots, but also washed off the fine rootlets. 

 At present trees are placed, even for short transportation, in baskets 

 or boxes lined with burlap and moss. They are thus kept constantly 

 moist, but are not washed. If seedlings can not be used at once in 

 the transplant beds they are heeled in; that is, placed with their roots 

 in a layer against the wall of a trench, which is then filled. If the 

 seedlings are to be heeled in for some time their tops are covered 

 with a mulch of straw. 



The transplant crew consists of five men; two of them " thread" 

 seedlings, one makes trenches, and the other two plant the trees in 

 the trenches. The threading process consists in fitting the seedlings 

 into notches on a " transplant board." The board 1 is 6 feet 3 

 inches long, with notches 1 or 1J inches apart and J-inch or more 



1 Full description of this board, the threading table, trencher, and tamper may be found in Forestry 

 Quarterly, vol. X, no. 1, March, 1912. 



