Page:Growing Black Locust Trees.djvu/16

14 loosened with a spade, in small operations, or with a plow or special digging machine if the nursery is more extensive. The tops and larger roots should not be bruised or otherwise injured. It is almost always necessary to prune the taproots in addition to the slight pruning or breaking of the roots inevitable in the process of digging. Ten inches in length is about the maximum for taproots. It is important to sort and roughly grade the seedlings as follows: (1) Culls, to be discarded all of those with spindling or threadlike taproots; (2) usable seedlings divided into at least two groups, according to size. The seedlings should be tied into bundles of 50 or 100 each.

The bundles of trees should be transported so far as possible directly from the nursery to the planting site and there planted. Sometimes they must be held in readiness for planting later. This means that they must be heeled in at or near the nursery or the planting grounds. The essentials of heeling in are: (1) Selecting a cool and moist but well-drained place; (2) digging a trench with a sloping side piling all soil on the opposite side; (3) laying the bundles (opened by cutting the cord and spreading open the seedlings) consecutively in the trench against the sloping side and covering the roots and base of stems with soil well-packed, to exclude excess air; (4) watering the seedlings well, if the soil is not moist do not let the soil become dry at any time; (5) providing shade for the heeled-in beds during early fall or late spring when the sun is warm and the air often dry. This may consist of brush laid on elevated racks or stringers or clean grain straw loosely piled over the beds. A cellar or cool storage will keep the trees in good condition.

The essentials are to keep the trees moist and cool and to prevent mechanical injury. The small tree bundles may be made up in packages of 500 to 1,000 trees each, wrapped with burlap or heavy paper and tied. Wooden boxes or crates are often used for holding bundles of small trees. The greatest danger usually comes from the drying or the heating of the tops and roots, with resulting death or reduction in vitality of the trees.

The distance apart, and, therefore, the number of trees to be planted per acre, depends mainly upon the purpose of planting, upon topography, and upon soil conditions. A rather common spacing for tree production is 6 by 6 feet apart each way (Fig. 9). On eroding lands of gentle slope this should be a good spacing, but on steep slopes and gully banks where a soil binder is needed quickly a spacing of 5 by 5 feet, or occasionally a minimum of 4 by 4 feet, is desirable. These successive spacings require 1,210, 1,743, and 2,723 trees, respectively, per acre. The richer and moister the soil within certain limits the more rapidly the trees grow and the sooner their roots and their tops meet. Likewise on poorer or drier soil the opposite is generally true, and more trees per unit of area are usually planted.

The small trees are set much like cabbage or tomato plants. They should be set with the least possible delay after they are removed