METHOD OF PLANTING. 19 



woods litter facilitates the drainage of such a sour soil. The hole, how- 

 ever, under such conditions, should be several inches deeper than would 

 be required in a lighter and more porous earth. 



Specimens should also receive careful attention previous to planting. 

 When shipped from a distant nursery, they should be unbundled, and if 

 a long period, as of several weeks, is to elapse before planting, they 

 should be heeled in. This is done by digging a trench one side of which 

 is very sloping, and the depth of which is from 18 inches to 2 feet, accord- 

 ing to the size of the trees. The specimens should be distributed along 

 this trench on the sloping side, the roots spread, the trench re-filled and 

 the earth firmly packed. If a suitable, cool shady place is selected, as on 

 the north side of a building, or at the base of a north sloping hill for heel- 

 ing in, leafing can be deferred for several weeks after the normal time for 

 opening. When it is necessary to keep specimens for only a few days be- 

 fore planting, they can safely be placed in any cool, shady place — a cellar 

 being an excellent place. Care should be taken, if the weather is warm, 

 to lessen the danger of the roots heating by opening the bagging or straw 

 in which they are wrapped. On the other hand, if the weather is cold, 

 precautions must be taken to prevent the roots from freezing and becom- 

 ing dry. They will seldom freeze in a deep, well-walled cellar, or they 

 can be covered with straw. When planting time comes the roots of the 

 trees which are unpacked, or taken from the heeling-in trench, should be 

 puddled by clipping in a thick mud until well coated. During windy or 

 warm weather the roots should be given additional protection, after un- 

 packing for planting, by covering with sacking and having an occasional 

 bucket of water thrown over them. The better the condition of the roots 

 when the tree is planted and the larger the number of live fibrous roots 

 the greater is the probability of rapid growth. 



In the selection of specimens only those should be chosen which have 

 reasonably straight stems and well-formed crowns. The larger the speci- 

 men, the better developed and more shapely should be the stem and 

 crown. Crooks in the stems of very small trees are soon out-grown, 

 while pruning soon corrects juvenile deformities of the crown. Such 

 defects are more slowly corrected in larger specimens. It is also necessary 

 to see that the roots of specimens are in good order. Before planting 

 these should be pruned with a sharp knife and the broken roots removed. 

 Very large scars of this kind, or large root wounds, especially in species 

 with thin sapwood, where the heart is exposed, should be well painted 

 with either a coal tar or a thick linseed oil paint. This will lessen root 

 rots which frequently ascend and result in hollow stems. The crown and 

 stem should also be pruned at the time of planting. It is necessary, in the 



