Page:Oklahoma Arbor and Bird Day, Friday, March Twelfth, 1909.pdf/24

22 shipment across the plains of Texas without the slightest covering. Before the destination was reached the roots became withered and almost dry, having suffered a hundred times more exposure than the ordinary tree can stand without injury. Not many persons would be guilty of such gross neglect, but the fact remains that exposure causes the death of more trees in transplanting than any other single cause. Exposure can usually be easily prevented, and no one who persists in neglectful practices can hope to be successful.

The failure to pack the soil tightly about the roots is a common error in planting. It causes injury in two ways: It leaves the tree unstable, to be rocked to and fro or even blown down by the wind; it also prevents the first growth of rootlets from absorbing food. This they cannot do unless good, fine soil is firmly packed around them. Clods will not pack snugly. Likewise manure or litter of any kind mixed with the soil particles from coming into close contact with the roots is sure to be injurious. Another error is in shallow planting. This allows wind and water to lay bare the roots, and in a short time the tree dies. Crowding the roots into too small a hole is a similar difficulty. Such errors are more often due to lack of experience and skill than to haste. The unskillful planter will hardly plant well, however, slowly he may go.

Trees are often injured by being planted in wet soil. Whether the excessive moisture is a permanent or a temporary condition is likely to make little difference in the results. If it is permanent the water prevents the air from reaching the roots, while if it is only temporary the trampling of the soil over them causes it to stick together so that on drying it becomes baked, leaving them impact in a hard lump of earth which excludes the air. Excessive air currents in the soil are injurious by drying the roots, but a constant permeation of the soil by the air is necessary to supply oxygen. This process is precluded by either the saturation or the baking of the soil. Undrained pockets occur here and there even in well drained fields, and are always difficult to deal with in tree growing.

Another cause of death is the drying out of the soil. Summer droughts are not unknown in any part of the country, and are very frequent in part of the Mississippi Valley on the Plains. Occasionally they are so intense and long continued that it is difficult to make recently planted trees survive, even when carefully planted and cultivated are almost sure to die. Frequently, too, weeds and grass grow up in the plantation and draw off the moisture, thereby greatly diminishing the supply for the young trees.

On a school ground there is likelihood of the trees being injured by the trampling of the soil. The pupils will naturally wish to play among them, and unless they are restrained the soil will soon become compacted. It then dries out very quickly, and in time of drought the trees are sure to suffer, and may be killed.

CARE OF TREES AFTER PLANTING.—Important as the process of planting is, one can never be certain that a tree planted with the