r 



54 



Prof. Blake. Yes, if they made a good growth I think with 

 good care they will overcome that injury. 



Mr. Bassett. There is one important matter right here, at least 

 it is important with us, that I want to bring up, and that is the 

 selection of nursery stock. We do not like the average cellar-stored 

 tree. Now the professor is absolutely right if the tree is perfectly 

 stored, but that is the problem. I do not say that they do not store 

 them right, but the results we have had, of late years, from cellar- 

 stored trees have been bad. We compared right side by side trees 

 that were stored by nurserymen and by our own farmers in Mich- 

 igan. They were stored in the fall and came to us in spring de- 

 livery. Spring delivery trees are cellar stored trees. The results 

 in every instance have been three or four times as good from the 

 heeled-in trees as those stored in cellars. In other words, we had 

 four or five times the loss from trees stored in cellars than from 

 the old-fashioned way of heeling them in. If you come to our sec- 

 tion now you will find very few cellar stored trees. The main 

 thing is the vitality of the tree. As I said before, they should be 

 properly stored and not piled up like so much cord-wood. 



Another thing the professor spoke of is that stored trees are 

 liable to be dried out, and he suggests soaking the trees. When I 

 presented that subject before the Illinois meeting a man objected 

 very strenuously to the idea of soaking the tree. He objected and 

 stated as the basis of his objection the fact that he had compared 

 trees that he applied water to when planting with non-soaked trees, 

 and the result was that the trees that were watered when planted 

 were very poor, as compared with trees that were not watered, 

 which indicated that water should be kept away when planting. I 

 question whether that is the case, but it is worth thinking about. In 

 our section we do not want the ordinary stored tree. We want our 

 trees gathered in the fall, shipped to us, and then heeled in. I think 

 lots of our troubles came from stored trees. 



Question. How do you heel them in? 



Mr. Bassett. In heeling them in you understand we dig a deep 

 trench, open every bundle and very thoroughly pack the soil around 

 the roots so as to cover them. The wind blows the snow over them 

 and in that way they are protected. They come out of the winter 

 in the very best condition and the result is we get the finest, green, 

 elegantly shaped trees. 



Prof. Blake. Certainly, if you take up fresh trees in the fall 

 and heel them in yourself and take care of them, they will be in 

 good, fresh condition, and nearly all of the stored trees are more 

 dried out than fresh stock, and I find that wetting the roots is an 

 important factor in the way they will start out into growth. Where 

 they are stored, or dried out in transit, if you want to get the best 

 results I certainly would put them in water before they are planted. 

 If a plant has a large quantity of water in it it can stand a good deal 

 of drying out without injury. 



