340 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



If, by reason of delay, the trees should be shriveled when received, 

 they can be brought out in safety by hurrying them entirely in moist 

 earth, root, body and branch for two or three days. 



Tree planting. 



It sometimes happens that the weather, after planting, is very un- 

 favorable, the evaporation may be very rapid. The trees that have just 

 been planted can take up but very little moisture from the ground, no 

 matter how much water you apply, until they have made granulations 

 for new root growth. Under such conditions, the trees or plants may be 

 rapidly exhausted before granulations have been formed and the fresh 

 supply of sap taken up. Perhaps the tree does not leaf out, >or perhaps 

 it comes out with small, delicate leaves, and then the hot, dry winds dam- 

 age the trees. Under such conditions, the trees can be saved by boxing 

 in the trunk with six by six fencing. Fill this upright box three times a 

 week. This will usually cause the trees to leaf out within ten days and 

 to grow the season through. This method has been thoroughly tested 

 and is of the utmost importance. 



It is very much cheaper to put in a little work, and save your trees, 

 than to lose a year's time as well as the trees. Leave these boxes around 

 the trees during the winter. In trying climiates, boxing in trees, is of 

 great value in guarding against winter sun scald, so destructive to trees 

 in the west and northwest. 



Trimming Trees. 



Apparently the well meaning planter dislikes to trim his trees when 

 he receives them. He seems to feel that he is mutilating a thing of Hfe. 

 Perhaps he feels that it affects the looks of the trees, and so it does, 

 temporarily, but at the end of the season, the trees which are balanced 

 up, shortened as the previous season's growth and which are properly bal- 

 anced as to top and root system, will be found to have made twice the 

 growth of trees not trimmed. Over and over again, we have planted thou- 

 sands of trees, cut off the same blocks and same lots as those shipped to 

 our customers and have found, in our experience, that a judicious short- 

 ening of the top, to strike a balance between top growth and root sys- 

 tem, was immensely helpful; first, in its lessening loss of sap by evapora- 

 tion; second, by enabling it to endure the shock of the transplanting; to 

 more quickly establish proper conditions of growth, and finally, in the 

 course of the season, to make a far stronger growth than the trees not 

 shortened. 



It is quite important that each kind of tree be trimmed in accord 

 with its peculiar qualities. With apple trees, our habit is to shorten back 

 three-quarters of the growth of the side branches, leaving a dominant 

 center so that the next set of branches will be 12 to 18 inches above the 

 lower set of branches. 



Shortening back should rarely be construed to mean to remove any 

 of the branches. Rather, shorten all the branches and leave all that were 

 on the tree when received from the nursery man. 



