R^^ 



1861. 



THE ILLmOIS FAEIVIER. 



197 



are inclined to the opinion that it will not. 

 We would therefore urge redoubled care in 

 stacking, so that the grain can stand out un- 

 til winter without danger of loss from bad 

 weather, if put up in ricks and well cover- 

 ed with slough grass, all the better. Pro- 

 vide storage against the time of threshing ; 

 if you put it over until winter for then the 

 roads will be very uncertain and you may 

 not be able to get it to market for weeks af- 

 ter the grain is ready. Here a great want 

 stares us in the face — the want of more 

 barns — not to hold the bulky sheaves, for 

 these we would put in stack, but a barn into 

 which we could stow one or more stacks, to 

 be threshed in bad weather, and where the 

 grain would be safe and convenient for win- 

 nowing until wanted. 



—*'- 



Care of Trees. 



A very large percentage of all trees and 

 plants set. out in the spring give up the 

 ghost long before the dog-star has culmina- 

 ted and another large percentage soon after. 

 What becomes of the trees is a grave ques- 

 tion and as capable of a solution as its con- 

 gener, " what becomes ot the pins ?'' 



nOVf TIIEY ARE " HEELED IN." 



There can be no doubt but that the au- 

 tumn is the best time to take up most fruit 

 trees, and yet the loss at that season is large, 

 especially when they go through the heeling 

 in process. A bundle of trees come from 

 the nursery, a large hole is dug, the bundle 

 thrust in it and a pile of earth thrown on 

 them. To put them in the fire would be 

 little more fatal to ihem, for all or nearly all 

 will die thu^ treated, as has been often de- 

 monstrated, not only by farmers but amateur 

 nurserymen who have embarked their all in 

 their first purchase, the trees are heeled in 

 in bundles ; but the tops being uninjured 

 give signs of life, leave out afler setting 

 and then die. The nurserymen is ruined, 

 the planter disappointed, and discouragement 

 thrown over the whole subject. Now, had 

 the same trees been properly heeled in not 



one would have died, and precisely the con- 

 trary result would have occurred. When 

 trees come from the nursery in the fall, if 

 not set out, should be heeled in by selecting 

 a dry spot where the water will not stand 

 under any circumstances, open a trench by 

 throwing the earth out on one side, forming 

 a sloping embankment against which the 

 body of the tree will rest, having its roots in 

 the bottom of the trench ; into this trench 

 the trees are placed singly, so that the earth 

 will close up all interstices about the roots 

 as though they had been set out in the or- 

 chard; the tops of the trees to be nearly as 

 possible on the ground for convenient cover- 

 ing either with corn-stalks, straw, or other 

 litter In this way the trees will come out 

 in the spring in a sound, healthy condition, 

 and will make a better growth than if stand- 

 ing in the nursery : 1st, because the roots 

 will have healed over, when cut, losing no 

 sap ; 2nd, they have escaped the sudden 

 changes of weather, the freezings and thaw- 

 ings of winter, secure under the covering of 

 of either. We cannot too strongly urge at- 

 tention on this point, as many of our own 

 customers have suffered on this head after 

 being warned of the danger, but in this, 

 like other matters, we need line upon line 

 and precept upon precept, here a little and 

 there a great deal — of care, brains and per- 

 severance. Most of the trees brought from 

 the East come in the autumn and are lost 

 by bad handling. Having been grown in a 

 moist climate, with high culture, and pro- 

 tected with snow covering in winter it is no 

 wonder that they die when treated as they 

 usually are. On the other hand, if proper- 

 ly " heeled in " and protected from the se- 

 verity and sudden changes of our winter un- 

 til they have made one season's growth, and 

 thus become partially acclimated in our cli- 

 mate before they try the open realities of our 

 winters. If people will purchase trees at 

 the East in preference to our own home 

 grown ones, we would like to save them from 

 as little loss as possible, for we want all the 

 trees that we can get ; no danger of setting 

 too many. 



