SITUATION AND PLANTING. 235 



are generally abundant in a prairie country, where com- 

 modious cellar room is not always at command. 



HEEIJNG-IN, as it is called, is a very important opera- 

 tion to be performed so soon as possible after the receipt 

 of the trees It consists in placing the fibrous roots in im- 

 mediate and close contact with the fresh and mellow soil, 

 at some point convenient to the future planting. A ditch 

 is dug with the spade, or a deep furrow is opened with 

 the plow, in a sheltered, but elevated and dry situation, 

 and in light mellow soil ; into this the trees are placed as 

 fast as they are removed from the packages, each kind be- 

 ing separated from the next by a distinct marking stick, 

 and it is well to place the labeled tree first, as taken from 

 bundles when untied. The trees are inclined at an angle, 

 generally leaning towards the south, so as to have the 

 stems shaded by their own branches. They are carefully 

 placed separately and held in this position by one person, 

 while the fine mellow earth is thrown'upon the roots by 

 another, who should take great care to see that all the in- 

 terstices are filled with soil, so as to exclude the air from 

 the fibres. This is especially necessary where the trees 

 are to remain in this situation during the winter, when 

 they will be alternately frozen and thawed. To secure 

 them from injury, the earth should be banked up against 

 them several inches ; and it is well also to cover this with 

 a heavy coating of leaves or some other mulching mate- 

 rial, if it can be safely used without danger of attracting 

 the field mice, which might ruin the trees. It is well at 

 once to make a record of the trees as they stand, so soon 

 as they are heeled-in, beginning at one end of the ditches 

 or rows, and pursuing a definite order. This record will 



