SHADE TREES AND EVERGREENS 
moisture. Trees finally should set just about I inch 
deeper than they did in the nursery. You can tell 
how deep they were by the dark ring around the 
trunk. After planting, you may water the trees 
liberally. We strongly recommend that you 
mulch immediately underneath newly planted 
trees. Hay, cut straw, corncobs, buckwheat hulls, 
or even sawdust, is good material to use for this. 
A layer 6 inches thick is not too deep. Such a mulch 
will keep the ground damp all the time, and will 
prevent nearly all evaporation. Unless you use 
this mulch it will be necessary to hoe around the 
tree every week or so to keep a mulch of dust on 
the surface to conserve the moisture. 
The after-treatment of both trees and hedges 
is determined easily when you are on the ground. 
If convenient, water them a couple of times a 
week. This will not be a necessity, though, if you 
have mulched. Trim the trees with an eye to the 
shape you want them to take, remembering that 
limbs never get any higher from the ground than 
where they are. Govern your clipping by planning 
your effects in advance. Good, healthy, standard 
outlines require very little cutting, while fancy 
forms call for about as much playing with the 
trees as you may be inclined to indulge in. 
A laborer’s home with a fine hedge. One hundred feet of 2-foot Privet 
plants, and Cherry shade trees, five of them, costing about $6.50 all 
told. The use of fruit trees for home planting is a good idea if you have 
no orchard; but, as a usual thing, you will be better satisfied if you plant 
a fruit-garden. 
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