88 SHADE-TREES IN TOWNS AND CITIES 



trees are piled in rows and the roots are covered with wet 

 straw and moss. The doors of the car being tightly closed 

 the evaporation is reduced to a minimum, and the trees 

 remain in good condition for one or two weeks. When too 

 many trees are packed in a box car it is difficult to unload 

 them without breaking some of the twigs. Hence it is bet- 

 ter to ship four or five hundred trees in a gondola car with 

 the sides and the roof built up of boards. The top of such 

 car can be removed on arrival and the trees lifted out with 

 absolutely no injury. 



A Municipal Nursery. — Even with the greatest care ex- 

 ercised in digging, packing, and shipping stock from a 

 nursery, the trees suffer a great deal from these hardships, 

 and their chances to reestablish themselves when set out are 

 not so good as when trees are grown in a municipal nursery, 

 and can be dug and planted the same day. A municipal 

 nursery is a necessary adjunct to a shade-tree department. 

 When a nursery is controlled and operated by a city it is 

 possible to get the quality of trees wanted. Their training 

 from the seedUng stage to the time when they are ready 

 to be set out on the street is with the point in view of 

 their use as street-trees. Their branching can be fixed 

 at the proper height and the trees developed with single 

 leaders. The trees from the municipal nursery are available 

 whenever wanted, and they can be taken up and trans- 

 planted with all the roots and the least exposure. The cost 

 of self -grown stock is also frequently much less than that 

 purchased from a nursery. 



It is also possible in a municipal nursery to keep in re- 

 serve large specimens of different species to take the place 

 of any that die in the streets, and in that way the uniform- 

 ity of the plantations can be maintained. 



