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Fertilisers are sometimes used at the time of planting for giving 
a good start to the trees, but avoid putting farmyard manure under 
the roots of the plant, as it would in many cases attract insects and 
favour the growth of parasitic moulds that would be injurious to 
the tree. Of chemical fertilisers a couple of handfuls of phosphates 
and potash manures mixed will in many cases prove of great value, 
well worked with the earth round the roots. Whenever farmyard 
manure is used, it should be in the form of a mulching on the top 
of the soil, as its beneficial effect will then be twofold: the plant 
food it contains will be washed from the surface down to where the 
roots are established by the winter rains, and it will act as a screen 
which will be of benefit to the plant by preventing the evaporation 
from the soil, and by smothering any weeds that might happen to 
grow round the trees. When the planting is done on freshly-cleared 
ground, sour and heavy, lime is an excellent preparation. The 
places where the trees are going having been marked, 6lb. to 7Ib. 
of lime is spread around the stakes; the holes are subsequently dug 
and the trees put in. This will correct the sourness and the stiff- 
ness of the soil and induce a healthy growth. Some open up the 
tree-hole some time before planting, but if the ground is at all stift 
and heavy, the liming as described above is preferable. Unless this 
dressing is applied it often happens that the sides and bottom of 
the holes are coated with a viscous vlaze which prevents the tender 
roots reaching to the soil beyond. 
After all the precautions have been taken for insuring the 
proper planting of the right sort of trees, all the efforts of the 
beginner are often frustrated by neglect of another important de- 
tail. The newly planted tree must be ent back, or shortened in, or 
else its growth will be checked, and it will not uncommonly perish. 
So long as it was in the nursery, the root system of the young plant 
was unimpaired, absorbing from the soil all the nutriment the 
branches required, but when taken up, no matter how carefully, 
many of the fine feeding rootlets are torn and bruised, the feeding 
capacity of the tree is no longer in keeping with the amount of 
shoots it carries, and unless the excess of these is cut back and the 
balance re-established between the feeding and the breathing and 
evaporating organs of the plant,.it will fail to thrive. The bark 
‘will become leathery and tight, the sap will heat and ferment under 
the action of the sun, and the tree will fall an easy victim to the 
attacks of borers and other noxious insects. 
How to Tre a TREE. 
A strap made of cloth or twine is passed round tree and stake 
in such a way that when properly fixed it forms the figure “8” 
around the tree and support to which it is firmly tied. This method 
avoids friction and chafing of the bark, and a eurved stem can gradu- 
ally be straightened. 
