﻿54 BULLETIN 13, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



roots. The roots of the young plants should be carefully spread out 

 and covered with fresh or moist earth, the ditch filled, and the soil 

 packed by tramping and thoroughly soaked with water. When the 

 planting is not to be done at once, the heeled-in stock should be 

 shaded in some way, as by spreading boughs over it. The plants 

 should be carried to their final destination in a basket or pail with 

 their roots surrounded by a quantity of damp sphagnum moss or by 

 pieces of wet burlap. The importance of keeping the roots moist 

 and protected from the air can not be too strongly emphasized. 

 Even a few minutes exposure will kill the plants, especially on hot, 

 dry days. In the past it has been customary to transport the plants 

 to the field in pails with their roots immersed in a puddle of clay 

 or loam and water. While excellent results have been obtained 

 by this means, it is now believed that puddling causes many of the 

 fine rootlets to stick together and to interfere with each other, so 

 that the death of many plants, especially in dry situations, can 

 probably be traced to this practice. Fresh but not wet sphagnum 

 moss is a convenient substitute and makes it possible to spread out 

 the root fibers when the seedlings are planted. When possible, 

 planting should be done on sultry or overcast days. 



In planting, the men work in pairs, one man digging holes and the 

 other setting the trees. The mattock is usually preferred to the spade 

 for this work. The holes should be large enough to give room for 

 the roots without crowding, and, especially on light soils, the plants 

 should be placed slightly deeper than they were in the nursery. 

 When making the hole, it is well to cut off and remove a thin slice 

 of sod in order to avoid immediate competition of grass roots. The 

 roots of the plants should be spread out and placed in as nearly a 

 normal position as possible. This can be accomplished by lowering 

 the plant until the base of the stem is close to the bottom of the hole 

 and the roots are spread out horizontally. Fresh earth is then 

 thrown in with the free hand. At the same time the plant is raised 

 with the other hand until the base of the stem almost reaches the 

 surface level. Instead of tramping the earth down solidly from 

 above, it should be compressed from the sides by putting both hands 

 simultaneously into the loose earth 2 or 3 inches on either side of the 

 stem and compressing the closed fists strongly toward the plant. 

 The empty spaces are then filled with earth, which is pressed firmly 

 downward with the closed fists, care being used not to apply the 

 pressure too near the central earth mass. Loose earth should then 

 be thrown over the surface. 1 While this method is at first a little 

 slow, it can be carried on with considerable speed after some practice. 



1 This method, devised and carried out with great success by the Belgian forester, Morris Kozesnik, is 

 described and illustrated in the Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, vol. IV, No. 2. 



