ot as long as the oak's. There are more reasons, too. But
if you must have quick results, here is a trick. Plant first a poplar
then a maple or some other tree and so on. Later the poplars may be cut
out and you have left the fine sturdy, long-lived trees. At the same
time the poplars have tided over that in-between period. We sometimes
weary of waiting for an oak to grow sizable.

The tree planting was left until May because of the state Arbor Day. The
maple and buttonball or plane-tree were dug up by the boys in the woods
the morning of Arbor Day. The trees were chosen from a rather open part
of the wood. It is better to choose trees from the open places than
from the denser woods. Trees thus selected are far more likely to grow
on being transplanted into a place similar to that from which they came.
The boys chose trees about five feet tall. The smaller the tree the
better. The following directions were the ones agreed upon:

(1) Dig a hole large enough and deep enough to accommodate the roots
without cramping. Allow so that the tree shall sit one inch lower than
it did before.

(2) Place the topsoil on one side of the hole; on the other the poorer
subsoil. If the topsoil is very poor, get some good, rich, black soil.

(3) Place good soil in the bottom of the hole.

(4) Put the tree on this layer, spreading the roots out carefully.

(5) Shovel rich soil over the roots. See that it goes in between the
roots. Don't be afraid to use your fingers for this work.

(6) The poorer soil goes in on top.

(7) Tramp the soil down with your feet, making firm about the tree
trunk.

(8) If the planting comes late in the warm weather make the soil into a
soft mud with plenty of water, in this form washing it in between and
about the roots, all roots and rootlets come in direct contact with the
mud.

(9) Last of all cut the tree back, shortening the larger branches about
one-quarter their length.

After planting the boys kept the trees soaked with water, thus making it
possible for the young saplings to have plenty of water. As the spring
went on the little maple prospered but the plane-tree started to put out
a few sickly looking leaves and finally died in midsummer. Just what was
the trouble? Supposedly these two trees were planted according to the
same directions. It finally came out that the boys who planted the
plane-tree had not cut off the bruised rootlets. These rootlets being in
a bad condition rotted and affect