14 BULLETIN 479, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tion, fertilization, weeding, and cultivation ; the main ditch may silt 
up and have to be dug out each spring and the laterals have to be 
entirely reconstructed each time the area is replowed; it takes a 
more experienced man to water by irrigation than by sprinkling; a 
considerable number of plants are covered in digging out and filling 
up a ditch to divert the water from one ditch to another ; transplants 
can not very readily be watered immediately after being set "out; 
all plants are not watered evenly; baking is worse when flooding 
is practiced on clay soils than under any other system ; and it requires 
more water for each operation than does sprinkling. 
INCLOSURE FOR NURSERY AREA. 
At every permanent nursery a good fence is needed, and all 
nurseries subject to damage through grazing by domestic stock or 
by deer must be adequately fenced against such animals. Where 
rabbits abound it will often be desirable to protect the nursery against 
them by meshed wire screen at the base of the fence or by a woven 
wire fence whose lower mesh is small enough to exclude them. 
If a nursery is subjected to the action of heavy winds which bend, 
whip, or break the plants or shift a light soil so as to cover a portion 
of them, or dry out the soil, a windbreak is desirable. A slat fence 
5 or 6 feet high will afford some protection. A very effective wind- 
break is made by nailing parallel rows of slatting on both sides of a 
row of posts and stuffing the space between with hay. Living wind- 
breaks of trees or shrubs also afford protection and where needed 
should be grown. The trees or shrubs chosen for the purpose should 
be those of a compact, bushy habit which are known to be hardy in 
the locality. They should be planted from 25 to 50 feet from the 
nursery area. If immediately adjacent, they do considerable damage 
to the nursery stock growing within their root zone. 
NURSERY BUILDINGS. 
At large nurseries there will generally be needed several nursery 
buildings, a house and woodshed for the man in charge, a barn, a 
packing shed, and a storehouse. The storehouse will serve as a stor- 
age place for seed supplies, tools, stakes, hose, lath shade frames, 
seed-bed frames of the knock-down type, and any other equipment. 
It should be located as near the nursery as possible. The packing 
shed should be partly open to the south and should be supplied with 
packing-box material, moss, burlap, nails, cord, labels, and paint. 
At nurseries so far removed from town that it will be necessary 
at times to feed and house a working crew, a cook house and bunk 
house will be necessary. The bunk house should be furnished with 
a heating stove and the cook house with a large cooking range, a 
complete set of cooking utensils and dishes, good working benches, 
