312 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



Protect Your Young Fruit Trees 



Do not neglect to protect trees from injury. Guard the 

 roots of young fruit trees from bark injury by rabbits or 

 other rodents. Earth should be drawn up in a mound round 

 the trees just before freezing weather. Newly planted 

 trees so situated that they may be injured by wagon wheels 

 should be protected by strong stakes driven about a foot 

 distant, to which they may be held Hghtly by bands of 

 burlap or pieces of old rubber hose, but not by string or 

 wire. Trees near the curb, where horses may get at them, 

 should be protected by wire guards. Older trees may be 

 used as hitching posts without danger of injury by the 

 simple expedient of putting a screw ring or a short chain 

 and snap into one end of a short stake and securing the 

 other end to the tree by two stout staples, allowing the 

 stick to hang down out of the way when not in use. 



Limbs that have been broken should be cut back to the 

 trunk or the parent limb of the tree, and the scars, if more 

 than an inch or so in diameter, should be painted over. 



Grading Around a Tree 



Sometimes fine trees are injured in grading work. Earth 

 is filled in directly against the base of the trunk. To over- 

 come this danger a low wall may be built rotmd the tree, 

 a couple of feet or less distant, and up to the grade line. If 

 the ground can be given a sHght pitch in all directions from 

 the tree, and the soil below it is well drained, this is all that 

 is necessary. If from the nature of the soil or the grade 

 there is danger of water collecting at the foot of the tree, 

 a circle of drain tiles should be laid about it with several 

 connecting lines or spokes extending from the base of the 

 pit, so that any surplus water will be distributed through 

 the tiles over a considerable area. 



Forcing Roots Indoors 



Before the ground freezes hard prepare some asparagus 

 and rhubarb roots for winter forcing under the bench in 

 the greenhouse or in a warm, fairly light cellar. With a 



