54 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
YOU can have a Garden like this IN JUNE—THIS YEAR 
— If You Plant Meehan's Evergreens = 
§j Shrubs and Hardy Flowers this Spring |j 
I Put Your Planting Problems I 
| Up to MEEHAN | 
| Meehan Service—personal, individual | 
[ service—superior because it is the result | 
| of sixty years of cumulative experience | 
| —is at your command. | 
| Expert Advice Free | 
1 No matter whether your home-grounds are large or limited | 
I in area, write us, question us freely. If one acre, or less, | 
| your letter will be assigned to, and answered by, an expert | 
| plantsman, who has studied your section, knows its climatic | 
| and soil conditions, and will give you practical and helpful | 
| suggestions accordingly. This preliminary advice is offered | 
| you without charge and without obligation. | 
| The Landscape Department | 
For properties of more than one acre, or those presenting | 
| unusual or intricate problems, correspondence should be g 
| opened direct with the Landscape Department, Thomas § 
| Meehan & Sons, Mt. Airy, Pa. | 
| Meehan’s Japanese Maples 
| We offer this season, at greatly reduced prices, an Amer- g 
g icanized, acclimated, absolutely hardy strain of the popular g 
| Japanese Maple in all its charming varieties-—the crowning | 
g success of 40 years of careful selection and effort. g 
I These Maples are broad, bushy, symmetrical specimens, | 
g all are growing on their own roots and are essentially g 
| distinct in other desirable particulars from the ordinary | 
| imported, grafted kind. | 
| Note this big reduction in cost | 
g Last year grafted Japanese Maples, 2 to 5 ft. high, sold | 
everywhere at from $3 to $10 each. This year, you can 1 
| get from us the choicest, most brilliant sorts, of our Amer- | 
| ican-grown, own-root strain, 2 to 5 ft., at from $1 to $5 
| each. In tree-form, up to $7 each. 1 
| Thousands of Charming Homes | 
s All over the country owe their beautiful setting of § 
Trees, Shrubs and Hardy Flowering Plants to Meehan 
| service and Meehan stock. It may be wise, therefore, | 
g for you to learn about us before deciding what you I 
are going to do to make YOUR home beautiful. | 
= Better write us at once — TODAY. If you say so, | 
we will send you our Hand-book of Trees and Hardy 1 
E Plants, for 1916, FREE. E 
| THOMAS MEEHAN & SONS ( 
| THE PIONEER NURSERYMEN OF AMERICA 
| 6740 Chew St., Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Old Trees for New Sites 
(Continued from page 44) 
moved. After the ball is clamped 
tight, it is undermined and one edge 
of the strong platform inserted and 
the ball pulled up on to it and fas¬ 
tened. It is then ready to transport. 
How the Moving is Done 
The transportation of a tree is 
purely a mechanical problem, and 
upon the apparatus available depends 
the size of the tree which can be 
moved. If a tree is to go only a 
very short distance a platform can 
be forced under it and the whole 
moved on rollers by means of block 
and tackle. For longer distances 
various specially designed heavy 
trucks are employed. The largest 
now in use is of all steel construc¬ 
tion and has an estimated capacity of 
thirty tons. 
In the case of evergreens the plat¬ 
form upon which the ball of earth 
rests is drawn up on the truck and 
fastened with ropes. If too tall to 
go under wires or bridges they are 
laid down with the trunk supported 
by a cradle. For deciduous trees 
without leaves there is no need of 
the platform. Over the four wheels 
of the truck is a cradle upon which 
the trunk of the tree rests, raising 
the roots from the ground and let¬ 
ting the top trail behind. The trunk 
is well protected from injury at 
■ points of contact with the cradle by 
means of burlap and wooden cleats. 
The cradle is securely attached to' 
the standing tree which is then pulled 
over by tackle and screw. For small¬ 
er trees a two-wheeled truck of very 
simple design is used. 
Success in Replanting 
In planting, the process of loading 
is reversed. The central part of the 
hole should be about 15" deep, the 
outer part about 6". The tendency in 
planting is to set too deep. If the 
ground is poor it should be excavated 
to a depth of 2' and refilled with 
good soil. 
One of the essentials of success in 
planting is to avoid a serious disturb¬ 
ance of the balance between root and 
crown. Since in moving a tree con¬ 
siderable injury to the roots cannot 
be prevented, even with the most 
painstaking methods, it is necessary 
to reduce the top to conform. This 
is more important with deciduous 
trees than with evergreens as the lat¬ 
ter are removed with a ball and re¬ 
quire less moisture than broad leaf 
trees. 
One of the best ways to prune a 
crown, though by no means the easi¬ 
est, is to cut back the tree from 1 
to 4' all around and then thin a 
little from the inside. This results in 
dense growth all over the outside of 
the tree. If the top shoots grow too 
rapidly in proportion to the lower, 
they should be nipped back in May 
or June to give the others a chance. 
If several shoots sprout out from 
the pruned limbs all should be re¬ 
moved except the thriftiest in order 
to restore the natural appearance of 
the crown. 
It is essential that transplanted 
trees should have water enough dur¬ 
ing the summer, but on the other 
hand if the soil is kept saturated for 
a considerable length of time the tree 
will be killed. The latter condition 
is very likely to occur where trees 
are planted in low, swampy ground, 
or near the shore, or in soil under¬ 
laid with stiff clay or hardpan. The 
remedy in this case is proper drain¬ 
age. Trees moved with a ball of 
earth need close watching to prevent 
drying out, as the ball gets dry 
quickly. The soil should be examined 
every two weeks during dry weather, 
and care taken to keep it mellow and 
only slightly moist. 
Watering the Tree 
The most satisfactory way of get¬ 
ting water into the ball of earth is 
to make a small mound just inside 
the edge of the ball and fill this 
shallow basin with water. About 2" 
of water should be applied at a time. 
To keep the surface of the ground 
from baking it should be finely culti¬ 
vated to a depth of 2" or 3". A layer 
of leaf mold or manure on top will 
serve as a mulch. 
The success with moving large 
trees requires careful and painstak¬ 
ing work and constant attention to 
detail. If the work is poorly done, 
the tree will either die outright or 
never recover its former vigor and 
beauty. For the man who is willing 
to wait for trees to grow or cannot 
afford the expense of moving large 
trees, the planting of smaller sizes is 
recommended. But for the person 
who desires immediate results or 
wishes to fill the void caused by the 
loss of old trees from storm or dis¬ 
ease, the modern methods of tree 
moving afford a satisfactory solution 
of the problem. 
Strawberries, Home Grown 
{Continued from page 16) 
strawberry plant are the best, and so 
the old stock is usually discarded after 
two or three bearings. The best way 
to do is to take, every year, fresh run¬ 
ners from the mature plants, thus re¬ 
plenishing the stock and keeping some 
always coming along. Pots may be 
sunk under the new runners in June 
and July, and they will soon be filled 
with thriving roots that are excellent 
for fall planting. Such a plan, con¬ 
sistently followed out, makes the 
strawberry bed a permanent, self-re¬ 
producing thing from year to year. 
Care must, of course, be taken to 
maintain the proper proportion be¬ 
tween bearing plants and the non¬ 
producing runners. This is not a 
difficult thing to do if you remember 
the principle of the thing, which, af¬ 
ter the bed is well established, is sim¬ 
ply to keep enough runners on hand 
to replace those old plants which 
must be discarded every year. This is 
the best way to keep the crop fully 
up to standard. If the bed is allowed 
to run down, either through poor soil 
or the age of its contents, it ceases to 
deserve a place in the garden. 
The matter of the best varieties to 
plant in the home berry patch is large¬ 
ly a question of individual preference. 
Many excellent sorts are listed by the 
supply houses, and one can hardly go 
wrong in selecting almost any of them. 
For the sake of definiteness, however, 
special mention might be made of 
Early Ozark, Chesapeake, Early Jer¬ 
sey Giant, Late Jersey Giant, and 
Fendall. 
