St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-08-14
TRANSMITTING TREES.
Necessity of Care in Both the Autumn ana
Spring Work.

Necessity of Care in Both the Autumn and
Spring Work.
In setting out young trees from the
nursery to the orchard, we have always
found them in the best condition II dug
in autumn, carefully heeled in for win
ter, and set out in spring. In h"cling
them in, it is important, and in fact abb
solutely essential, to do the the work in
the best manner, allowing no interstices
to remain among the roots by compactly
applying fine mellow earth, banking the
soil partly up the stems for additionai
protection, and selecting wcll-drained,
sheltered place. If the whole are sur
rounded with ridge OF smoothly-bcaten
earth, the mice will be excluded from
them, as these animals will not ascend
steep and smooth earth under snow.
When the trees are carefully taken
out in spring, small white tibers will
often be seen rrotruding from the cut
ends OF the roots, and as these need not
be disturbed, they will be ready to aid
in immediate growth. But when the
trees are dug from the nursery rows in
or broken after the movement foE
growth has commenced, some check is
necessarily given to them.
1t will be observed here that there
are three requisites for the best success
in the course we have recommended,
MANIPULATING in autumn, careful heel
ing-in and setting out in spring. 1t is
true that they may be set out in autumn
Immediately after digging, but in this
case they will be liable to be injured by
winter, being fully exposed to the
winds; and they will be liable to the adj
ditional injury, after starting to grow,
from the hard crust of earth formed by
long settling, if allowed to remain I'M
broken around them. These objections.
however, are at least partly removed if
the trees are set in q sheltered place,
and the soil kept well pulverized during
the following spring.
Many planters find that spring-set
trees do better than those transplanted
in autumn, simply because the opera
ton mellows the soil about them just as
growth is commencing, and this is bet
ter than the hard unbroken crust which
has been forming since the previous
autumn.
The different operations in transplant
ing may be carelessly and specifically
performed, and the trees may die, or
make little growth. For instance-they
may be .carelessly dug up, with short
stumps of the mutilated roots; they may
be heeled-in in mass, the lumpy earth
being oarelessly thrown on their roots,
interstices left all through them which
the mice easily penetrate, and the adj
mitted air being allowed to dry the
roots and kill the trees.
The same general principles will APP
ply to the bushes of the raspberry,
blackberry and currant, but the man
agement may be varied by setting them
out at once, if sufficient protection is
given them, as the young plants, being
cut back to few inches, are less ex-
posed to winter winds, and such plants
as young raspberries may be well pro-
tected with forkful or two of manure
placed over each one.
We have not given to strawberries
series of trials under suitable manage
ment, to lay down rules, but we observe
statement of Samuel Miller, of Mis-
souri,, that his strawberry plants taken
up in the fall, carefully heeled-in, pro-
tected during winter, and set out in
spring, were farther advanced and set
more fruit than those taken up in
spring. The heeled-in plants had "a
nice set of new roots started, which
went right ahead" But it should not
be forgotten that without full protection.
with access of the covered plants at the
same time to air, the experiments will
be failure Country Gentleman.