134 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
HANDLING NURSERY STOCK . 
The Experience of W. T. Hood of Richmond, Va,—Packing Boxes 
and Packing Material — As to Baling Trees—Digging 
the Stock — Unnecessary Express Charges — 
Handling Small Stock — Dealing With 
Agents — Buy Only the Best 
Grades. 
At the annual convention of the Southern Association of 
Nurserymen the following paper was read by W. T. Hood, of 
Richmond, Va. : 
“ In selecting my subject, my object was for the benefit of 
the Southern nurserymen — knowing that many of the South¬ 
ern nurserymen have not been digging, grading and packing 
nursery stock as well as they should. Tae Northern nursery¬ 
men have what they call a Protective Association, their object 
to protect them from unscrupulous tree dealers, and the black 
sheep among nurserymen, and in their rating of nurserymen 
they will give adverse rating to a nurseryman who digs and 
grades poorly. As my subject is the handling of nursery 
stock, the first object should be for the preparation of hand¬ 
ling that stock, which each nurseryman should provide for 
some time before he expects to be ready to dig. 
“ In the first place, he should order what lumber he thinks 
he will need, and should order it from three to six months 
before he wants it, so as to have it in proper condition for 
making his boxes. In my business I generally give the order 
six to nine months ahead, and I use for frame strip—for the 
small boxes inch boards, for the large boxes inch, and it 
should be sap pine and nearly clear of knots. For the length 
of the boxes I have the lumber cut ten feet. For boxes 24 
inches square, and all under, I use one inch lumber and have 
it re-sawed, which makes about one-half inch, or a little less ; 
and for all above 24 inches used 1 l /^ inch and have it re-sawed, 
which makes about five-eights or a little less in thickness. 
The lumber that I buy for the sides is what we call in our city 
as No. 3, ahd is mostly cut from what we call ‘ old field pine,’ 
and costs about $9 per thousand feet delivered in Richmond. 
Sometimes it can be bought at less, and after it is sawed it 
will make the one-half inch cost $6 and the five-eights about 
$7 per thousand. The smallest size I make is ten inches 
square head ; the next sizes 10-14, 14-14, 14-19, 19-19, 19-24, 
24-24, 24-27, 27-27, 27-32, and 32-32, and I make a few of 
what we call our wagon delivery boxes, which is 32-28. All 
these sizes are inside measures, and as I have all the framing 
pieces cut square and not mitred, it is less trouble and, I 
think, make the best boxes. My object in making sizes that 
are not square is that I can use the same pieces of framing in 
two sizes, also the same size tops for two size boxes, which 
saves cutting about one-half the number of sizes of frame pieces, 
and also we do not have to have but one-half of the tops 
ready, as I have the tops cut the right width and piled up 
ready to use. 
PACKING MATERIAL. 
“ The best packing material is moss, which can be found in 
most sections of the South, if not, it can be bought North from 
those who make a business of gathering and drying it. The 
next best material is excelsior, which is used more North than 
any other material. For straw, oat is the best, and for a short 
distance will do well alone ; but there should not be much wet 
put amongst the trees, as there is danger of heat from wet oat 
straw. Wheat straw does not make good packing material as 
it is too coarse and does not hold dampness unless well rotted. 
For the past fourteen years I have used paper for lining nearly 
all the boxes'we pack, as I think trees will deliver in better 
condition than if not lined, and I can use less packing mater¬ 
ial,'as it is impossible to make boxes that do not dryout, 
which leave cracks that will let the air'pass through the boxes 
unless they are paper lined. I use what is called No. 9 Red 
Sheeting Paper, which costs in Philadelphia from 70 to 85 
cents per roll of 500 feet. For tying, where one can get them, 
willows are the best ; if not, wool or jute cord, which comes 
in balls of 5 pounds or in reels of 25 to 50 pounds, or in large 
cord of 35 strands, and the strands come in 4 to 12 ply ; 4 to 
5 ply is about the right size, and is more economical. In using 
soft rope, there is not the danger of skinning as there is in 
using hard rope, such as tared, lath or sisal, as I have seen 
used by many nurserymen. For baling, use 3-ply sisal. 
“ I use in making boxes 6, 7 and 8-penny cement coat wire 
nails, which clinch well. To put on the tops, use a short nail, 
not more than 1 to 1 and is called Barbed Roofing Nail. 
My object in not using large nails in putting on tops is, I have 
very often received trees where the nails have been driven 
through into the trees ; also have had complaint from the same 
cause. 
BALING TREES. 
“ In our first work at the nursery, 35 years ago, we baled all 
of our trees for several years, and did not know how to close 
boxes, though very easy and simple to us now. At that time, 
orders from farmers were much larger on an average than 
they are now, and we could bale as cheap, or cheaper, than we 
could box, though it took more men to do the work on the 
packing ground than it does to box now. But our men got 
very expert in baling, different men doing different parts ; the 
first, after each variety was tied up a gang of two each would 
put in bundles, using windlass to draw up tight; and then two 
men would do nothing but straw, and then as many as you 
need would put on caps (which we used burlaps for) and then 
others did the roping, and others would carry off and dip in a 
pool or well of water, which had to have a crane to lift out. 
I have sejn 50 to 60 men doing this work, and the men vied 
with each other to see which could cap or rope the best ; and 
if a bale was turned off from J the capper that did not look 
well, some of the others would criticise it, and the same with 
ropers. Now, we do not bale much outside of the shade trees, 
and we have hard work to get that done, as we have only a 
few men with us that can do it. 
As I said before, we did not know then how to close 
boxes, and also, pack them. I remember the first large lot of 
boxes we had to pack at the Richmond Nursery—it was an 
order of about sixty boxes. We did not tie up the trees, but 
one man handed each tree to the packer and d he packed them 
loose in boxes, and it was very slow work ; and when it was 
done, it was hard to put the tops on, after filling them well, as 
the middle or tops of trees filled up faster than the roots. 
Since then, we have been tying all trees up. We used to tie 
up 25 in a bundle ; but now for all trade orders we tie up ten 
in a bundle, using two labels to a bundle. In that first lot of 
boxes, we had a hard time to get them closed ; think they 
used chain around the boxes, and used a twist pole to draw 
up ; and the next move was to have a frame made to put in 
the boxes with lever clamps to draw up. While that did the 
work very well, it was too much work to get the boxes to the 
