8 Miscellaneous Circular 16, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 
not be done, they should be stored in a cellar or some cool, moist place, 
cr heeled in as shown in Figure 7. The tops of evergreens in pack- 
ages should not be wet; if there is any danger of the roots becoming 
dry, they should be moistened not soaked. This can be done by pour- 
ing a small quantity of water over the stems at the top of the pack- 
age, allowing it to trickle down into the roots and moss. 
METHOD OF PLANTING 
When ready to plant, the trees should be taken out of the package, 
or from the ground where they have been heeled in, and placed in 
a box or bucket which contains some of the moss in which the trees 
were originally packed. The roots should be surrounded by wet 
moss and the trees themselves covered with a piece of wet burlap. 
When planting, the trees should be drawn from the bucket or box one 
at a time and put into the ground with as little exposure as possible. 
Care in planting trees is as important as care in handling them. 
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Fic. 7.—Heeling in. This should always be done if the trees can not be planted imme- 
diately. Dig trench in moist earth deep enough to bury the roots and part of the 
stems allowing the roots to hang down full length, covering each layer of roots as 
placed. Do not double or curl them. Each layer of roots should not be more than 2 
inches deep and the thickness of the soil over the roots should always exceed the 
depth of the layer of the roots 
If they are not given careful attention when they are set in the 
ground, they can not be expected to live. Correct and incorrect 
methods of planting are shown in Figure 8. 
The best way to plant evergreens is to plow a furrow and place 
the trees in slits made with a spade, as shown by Figures 9 and 10. 
These furrows can be plowed in sod in the sand hill region where 
there is danger of soil blowing; and the trees will require no culti- 
vation, unless the planter desires to stimulate their growth. Suc- 
cess in tree planting can not be expected if the trees are stuck in 
sod and left to care for themselves, for the grass will crowd them 
out. This grass competition is greatly reduced by plowing a furrow, 
tle method used in the planting operations on the Nebraska National 
lorest. Trees planted in the heavier loam soils should always be 
cultivated. 
Hardwoods, if small rooted, may be planted in furrows in the 
sume manner as conifers, or, if roots are large, by the deep-hole 
