56 NUT GROWING 



it is well to pour a bucket of water into the hole in 

 which the young tree is set and then move the little 

 tree up and down a bit until the mud snugly packs 

 about every root. This would be fatal to the tree 

 if attempted in a clay or clay alluvium. The reason 

 for that is that the clay mud sets about the roots in 

 a hard ball that the newly transplanted root cannot 

 penetrate. In some soils a contraction takes place 

 after a young tree has been set in mud so that the 

 earth actually draws away from the roots at various 

 points. The very valuable method of settling the 

 earth about the roots of a young transplanted tree 

 by means of a pail of water must be carefully 

 adapted to soils in which it is really a valuable 

 method and not an injurious one. For the most 

 part a firm tamping of the ground will suffice. The 

 question of adding fertilizer at the time of trans- 

 plantation is a moot point. Most orchardists, I be- 

 lieve, prefer not to add any manure or other fer- 

 tilizer aside from lime at the time of setting out the 

 young tree. I have sometimes employed an inch or 

 two of good rich leaf mold at the bottom of the 

 hole, covering it with a bit of ordinary soil, and be- 

 lieve this to be advantageous. A little leaf mold 

 may be added also to the soil which has been turned 

 out of the hole and then turned back in when the soil 

 is replaced about the roots of the tree. Aside from 

 the use of lime and of leaf mold in this way ferti- 

 lizers or manure are injurious to young trees in the 

 kinds of soil with which I have experimented. 



