Blasting Before Planting. 101 
ing this, he sometimes bores a three-inch hole about four feet 
below the blast. Instead of blasting in the hole where the tree 
1s to be planted, some bore and blast the hard-pan midway be- 
tween the rows, placing the holes at “quincunx” with the trees. 
The shattering of the hard-pan between the trees is said to be 
practicable after the trees are growing, and may in certain soils 
relieve trees which are suffering for lack of drainage. A half- 
pound cartridge of dynamite has been successfully used for sub- 
soil blasting. 
There are situations here and there over the State where 
such practise would be beneficial, and in some cases mere dig- 
ging or boring through the impervious stratum avails much. 
On the bench back from the Mokelumne there are spots where 
“Java crusts” overlie gravel, and trees have been well grown by 
cutting holes through the lava to the gravel, filling with good 
soil and planting the trees in these holes. Their roots penetrate 
to the gravel-stratum and obtain abundant moisture and nutri- 
ment. This “lava” is quite soft when not exposed to the air, 
but being quarried hardens so as to serve as building stone. In 
certain situations where a shallow layer of soil overlies a heavy 
clay, trees have been blown over, but when a cut has been made 
through the clay, the trees have rooted deeply and have with- 
stood the winds. 
It is becoming more and more apparent, however, that for 
commercial plantings of trees and vines all such defective soils 
should be avoided. There is plenty of good, deep land to be 
had, and the burden of ameliorating poor land is a serious hand- 
icap in the competition which has brought production to very 
narrow margins of profit. 
Digging the Holes—Holes for tree planting may be dug at 
a leisure time after the laying off of the field, even though it is 
not designed to plant the trees immediately, but our largest 
planters do not approve the practise. In such cases the sides of 
the holes should always be freshly pared off before the trees are 
put in, because the rain and sunshine are apt to cement the sides. 
In digging holes the surface earth should always be thrown on 
one side and the lower soil on another. The object of this is 
to have the top soil to place in direct contact with the roots 
when the tree is planted, the lower soil being used to fill up the 
hole with. 
TREE SETTERS: 
No matter how carefully the stakes are placed in laying off 
the orchard, the trees will not easily come in line unless some 
handy device is used for bringing the stem just in the place occu- 
pied by the stake which was thrown out in digging. These 
