Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-05-16

AFTER TRANSATLANTIC.

AFTER TRANSPLANTING.
While the management of trees and
plants before transplanting, and the care
less, understandable way in which that
part of the work is done, are responsible
for large share of the failures expe-
rienced every year, by which large sums
are sunk in nursery stock, yet "a consider
able proportion of the loss may be
attributed to neglect or Encouragement
after transplanting.
A good many farmers seem to think
that, when they have done job of
transplanting, they have done all in their
power towards securing trees or plants
and fruits, and that they must trust the
remainder to Providence; but, we are
never justified in trusting to Providence
until we have done all in our own power.
When we have done that a patient, re-
signed awaiting of the results is far better
than worrying and fretting, or borrowing
trouble. In some localities but little
fruit can be expected without irrigation.
and even in our own favored cline results
wouly be quite doubtful without the
employment of some means to mitigate
One of the first things to be done to
prevent the exhaustion of the sap in a
transparent tree is to reduce the top sur
face exposed to the atmosphere. In
digging, quite proportion of the roots
are necessarily torn off, reducing mate
rally the capacity of the plant to absorb
moisture from the earth, consequently the
capacity of the top to evaporate moisture,
through its leaves, should be proportion
ally reduced. Few of us have any idea of
the vast amount of water the foliage of a
large, growing tree is capable of evapo-
rating, daily. The bark of tree not in
leaf is also capable of transpiring con-
siderable moisture, and dead branch
even, will throw off moisture.
The top, then, should be reduced con-
siderably, and this is probably better
done by shortening in the branches than
by cutting them off entirely. Most horti-
culturalists are liable to err more in
pruning too little than too much. Some
trees seem to do better where not only
branches but considerable portion of
the main stem is cut of. This is true in
relation to peach trees, transplanted one
year from the bud.
Another means of modifying the effects
of drouth on newly transplanted trees is
by frequent stirring of the soil over the
roots The effects of that process in
increasing moisture in the soil has become
too familiar to all intelligent cultivators
to need further elucidation. He who will
allow the soil over roots of young plants
and trees to become dry and baked, is
unworthy of the name of horticulturist.
The benefits of mulching have come to
be too well understood by practical
horticulturists to require further proof.
1t undoubtedly retains in the soil much
of the moisture that would
otherwise escape by evaporation, and it
also appears to have a fertilizing effect,
probably by collecting nitrogen, and
possibly by favoring the nitrifcation of
the soil. The science of this matter is
not as well understood as it ought to be,
but we hope that necessary experiments
will be instituted, ere long, to determine
some things definite about the process by
which the amount of available nitrogen
in the soil is increased. The latest n.y.
pothesis is that living, microscopical
germs are constantly engaged in the de-
composition of vegetable matter in the
soil, evolving nitrogen.
Probably the greatest effects are pro-
duced when both cultivation and mulch
ing are employed. It is doubtful whether
growth would be as rapid with mulch
left on the surface all through the season
as it would were it removed occasionally,
the soil well stirred and the mulch re-
stored. It is possible to retain life in
newly transplanted trees through the
first season without either mulching or
cultivation, but the new growth would be
almost imperceptble, and the chances
for a profitable return of fruit in the
future not good.
The above is taken from the american
Rural Home, published at Rochester, N.
Y. We copy it for what we claim to be
its intrinsic worth as an index to the
action of people in western Kansas after
transplanting trees. Out here, there has
been general disposition to expect en-
tirely too much of Providence in making
timber grow in fresh sod and other unfavor-
able locations. A moments thought over
what the Rural Home says with respect to
some means being necessary, even in the
favored climate of central New York, to
mitigate the effects of summer drouths,
will convince any sensible resident of
western Kansas that the so-called cultiva-
ton of timber in this region thus far has
very generally been the merest farce.
Not only, then, are favorable location
and more or less artificial moisture i'm
peratively demanded in this climate for
the successful growth of timber, but what
might, further to the east, be termed un-
merciful pruning, must be exercised.
The cultivation of timber in this region
is indispensable to success. It should be
kept as free of weeds and grass as the
corn field of the neatest farmer.
In this part OF Kansas, we believe that
il matters little whether mulching is