Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-07-15
NeWly.Planted Trees.

IT may not do any good to be constant
" scolding people for their ignorance or
neglect, but cannot help doing so occa-
sionally, and especially wien / see the
Stupidity exhibited in the management of
newly planted trees. In the suburbs of
any of our large cities or villages it is
common practice to set out groups and
single specimens Of evergreen and decid-
uous trees and shrubs for ornament, after
which the ground is seeded down, the
grass being permitted to grow close up
to the stems the first season, and per-
haps longer. The result, as every man of
experience knows, is stunted growth of
the shrubs and trees, if they are not
killed outright. If the planting was done
in the fall the chances are that some
stupid gardener or other person will adj
wise the owner to seed down with rye or
wheat, and the, following season, crop
of this grain may be seen growing in
front of elegant country or suburban res
licences, smothering the smaller shrubs
and drawing the last drop Of moisture
from the soil. [ saw several instances of
this injurious and absurd practice in a
ten-mile ride to-day in the vicinity of one
of our most aristocratic villages, not twen-
ty miles from New York city
One might suppose that common sense
would teach man better than to allow
grass, weeds, or grain of any kind to grow
over the roots of trees, for the first season
at least, when they require all the moisture
likely to fall in rains to sustain life, and
even this is seldom sufficient to insure
vigorous growth unless carefully retained
by the free use of some kind Of mulch on
the surface about their stems, City-bred
men, of all others, appear to be the most
stupid as well as donkeyish in regard to
this matter of smothering newly-set trees
and plants with grass; in fact they have a
disease from their first introduction into
country society, which may be appropri-
ately termed grass on the BRAIN" and
everything from verbena up to the huge
elm or maple must be crowded with grass
If an evergreen hedge is set out, grass
seed is sown in, among and all about it,
and not hoe or rake applied to the
ground ever afterward, and then there is
great 6 wonderings'' why the plants look
so yellow and sickly when some less
stupid neighbours are so fresh and green.
It's pity we have no society for the pre-
vention of cruelty to plants, for such a
one is needed us much as those for
preventing cruelty to animals. | seldom
go dozen miles from home without get
ting my temper up to fever heat from see
ing upon everyrside the grass-bound and
d-smOthered trees and plants. If
plants had souls, some folks know would
get scorched for crimes committed against
the rarest and most beautiful, as well as
the more common, and useful. [ cannot
believe that it is necessary for me to tell
what treatment newly-set trees or hedge
plants require, for it is scarcely possible
that man who has brains enough to in
herit money (and this requires an in
finitesimally small quantity sufficient to
pur chase them could go wrong if he
would use what he has. But | will say
this much: No grain, grass, or weed should
be permitted to grow over the roots Of any
tree or plant the first season after it is set
out, and it would be better if not in after
years, although the latter is not so i'm
peratively a necessary condition.
If those who spend money literally or
otherwise for ornamental trees and shrubs
would pay a little more attention to
culture, we would see less failures to pro-
duce handsome and healthy sDecimens.
Rural Neao Yorker.