The Bryan daily eagle. (Bryan, Tex.) 1895-1898, 1896-08-30
r,o,eerln. Evergreen. from prou,h.

Protecting Evcrersens from nrouih.
The Wisconsin Horticultural society
bulletin publishes an article by J. C.
Plumb on Protecting Eyorgrecns from
Drouth." Il Is as follows.
The premature death OF so many OF
our evergreens In lawn and hedges. In
southern Wisconsin. Is truly alarming
In my home village are many trees
which have hitherto nourlshCd and at
lained their ten to thirty feet. without
any show Il weakness. but which In the
last year have lost their foliage never
10 return. and the evergreen hedges,
miles OF which We have planted and
furnished In that vicinity. are now
many Of them dying out In spots, or
lhow a weakness that preludes death.
ind am looking for a larger death
rate 20 show among the evergreen trees
than ever. with the coming spring and
GUNNER With a view 10 avert fur
lhor losses In this line | have been
looking up the facts and seeking a
remedy. II is plain enough taat ne
primary cause Of this death Is the wSat
Of rainfall during summer and autumn,
as has been the case during thu last
two years. Copious and season1Jle
watering would have saved most II
them without doubt. but prevention is
better than cure. Artificial watering Is
generally costly and often q dlfloul,
process. So we find II best to avoid
the cause by conditions OF planting
and growth. Our annual rainfall Is all
sufficient for our needs In this diree-
ton, II Il can be conserved. or reserved,
for time OF need. In this line we find
three ways available. namely; First,
culture; second. mulohing; third. pro-
lection from robber plants. The first
two methods named We all understand
aud practice with all successful culti-
vations, but the last remedy We have
failed to appreciate Our eyergreons
are being robbed OF the last ves,ige OF
water In the soil by deciduous trees,
OF which the white soft maple Is most
destructive. the butlernut and Euro
pean larch following close. In fact any
tree the roots OF which feed on the sur
face will rob the eyergreens. We find
the homlock and balsam Or most sen
sitivo 20 the robber roots. and the ar
Dor vitae least so; No that under the
same conditions the latter is holding
its own with little show OF weakness
from the drouth. Now since no surface
mulch or culture viii answer fully in
our case. we have found Il necessary
70 cut down, or severely root prune.
these deciduous trees where they en-
croached upon the eyergreens. In one
Ease where beautiful homlock hedge
was showing the first symptoms OF
death. we took up the intervening
plank walk and cut OF the maple roots
by digging two foot trench between
the hedge and the trees. Again we
have dug similar trench around single
trees 10 cut or the robbcr roots. In
every case the effect was soon shown
by the renewed vigor Of our oyergreens.
But rs this must be repeated every few
years. Il Is question why not put In
a permanent concrete wall between,
or dispense altogether with the fast
growing deciduous trocsl am OF the
opinion that we have too many OF these
rapid growing naples. and the sooner
they are dispensed with the better Tor
our beautiful evergreens. have Tor
many years been In the practice Of cut
ting the surface roots OF grass and
shrubs around our lawn trees BY show
Ing the spade its fun depth in cir
rular cut As FAR from the base Of lhe