FRUIT-GARDEN FORETHOUGHT 



Every cultivated plant is infested by insects and infected by 

 diseases. The strong arm of the law, federal and state, controls the 

 distribution of nursery stock attacked by insect or fungus parasites 

 so that the buyer 

 may expect his trees 

 to come to him from 

 any part of the country 

 free from pests. 



A generation ago 

 it was good advice to 

 tell buyers that trees 

 grown near home 

 were to be preferred. 

 Now, with quick trans- 

 portation, much better 

 storage facilities, and 

 improved methods of 

 handling, trees may be 

 shipped long distances 

 with little or no detri- 

 ment to their welfare 



Care of 

 Young Plants 



Heehng-in' fiuit trees on their arrival 



Mere distance, therefore, is not important. 

 The following simple rules for handling fruit trees as 

 they come from the nurseryman are themselves the 

 fruit of long experience and ought to be observed. 

 The trees must be unpacked without delay. If possible they 

 should be planted at once; otherwise they must be "heeled-in." 

 Heeling-in is temporary planting, and consists of a short transplanta- 

 tion, the shorter the better, in a trench wide enough and deep enough 

 to receive the roots of the thickly set plants. If a long delay threatens, 

 slope the trench to the south and cover not only the roots but about 

 half of the bodies of the trees. Commonsense makes plain the neces- 

 sity of keeping the roots completely covered from sun and wind. 



Sometimes plants come almost hopelessly dried out. One can 

 often successfully play providence to these dead trees and bring 

 them to life by burying, root and branch, in damp earth for a week or 

 ten days; and their eventual prosperity may be the better assured by 

 pruning more severely than is suggested in Chapter VII. 



13 



