Page:Growing Black Locust Trees.djvu/13

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It may be well to mention a few of the essentials for success in planting, as far as known at the present time. Future research and observation will undoubtedly add to what is now known.

A prime essential for success in planting black locust seedlings is to break up or prepare the ground well. Pines may be set in firm soil; but to be successful, locust should be set in ground that has been well broken and worked to make a good plant bed. In such ground the lateral roots will find easy entrance and stimulate good top development. If planted in a small hole in hard though fertile soil, the locust may barely live for a year or more but seldom makes a normal growth.

The best time for planting or setting locust seedlings is in early spring before the buds begin to swell. If set out late in the spring after leafing starts, the seedlings should be cut back nearly to the ground. In loose soils locusts may be planted in the fall after good rains have wet the ground to a considerable depth. Fall planting is dangerous in all tight soils because of probable injury from frost heaving.

Seedlings with small spindling or threadlike taproots, or culls, probably come from undersized or weak seeds and even in good soil will not make satisfactory growth.

In planting, the seedling and particularly the roots should be kept moist at all times. Sometimes the planter drops the trees far ahead of the setting, and the tree dries; this may not kill the seedling but injures its vitality and chances of good growth.

If seedlings are to be held over or stored after digging they should be heeled in. The soil should be packed well around the root and lower stems and the ground kept moist. Heeled-in trees should be well shaded. Damage from root disease has been found in such storage in the South.

In advance of planting, the soil should be well prepared. Many failures or near failures can be traced directly to planting locust seedlings in hard ground. In abandoned fields it will usually not be difficult or costly to break the ground and disk or harrow it. Then it should be laid off in furrows with the desired spacing. If it is not practical to break all the ground by plowing, a good planting bed should be prepared by plowing at least two furrows running in the same direction. A better planting bed is made by running a middlebuster or lister plow and afterward throwing a furrow inward from each side (fig. 7). Successive planting beds should be made every 6 feet apart or other desired spacing.

In planting gullies, the best method is to plow down the banks beginning at the top. The next-best preparation is to plow a couple of furrows along a contour to make a planting bed in the form of a low terrace. This is repeated each 5 or 6 feet to the bottom. It is essential to plow down the gully edges in order to reduce the gradiant and throw topsoil into the gully bottoms to aid the vegetative growth. In large or deep gullies it is essential first to build a series of low check dams across the gully bottom at selected points