My last word of advice in raising what might be termed semi-hardy trees, is to grow them in sod, the ordinary quack grass, June grass, bluegrass or other natural grass sods which can be found on your planting site.  Although this will probably hold back your tree development for a few years, until the roots are thoroughly established in the deeper soil beneath the sod roots, it is surprising how many species of trees will thrive in sod and perish on open cultivated ground.  I can give no better example of this than relating a circumstance which bears this out in a most convincing way.  In 1941 I purchased about 250 filbert seedlings from Samuel Graham of Ithaca, New York.  These were planted out on a field site and practically all of the plants made good growth the first year.  They were thoroughly cultivated.  The next year a second batch of plants of a like amount were purchased from the same man and of the same kind of seedlings.  Mr. Graham told me that these were seedling trees from Jones hybrid seeds which he had growing in his orchard.  These plants were put on heavy sod ground; all plants were protected by screens, but the plants on the sod ground were subject to a very wet season and it was necessary to build up the soil around some of the plants in order to save them from being drowned out.  Today about 45 plants are living on the sod culture and two or three barely alive exist in the open field culture.  Although the plants remaining alive on the sod culture plot are almost pure filbert strain they are therefore very subject to the common hazel blight.  Some have grown into bushes 10 feet high which later were hit by blight and have been reduced to small bushes.  Others are producing good filbert-type nuts and are somewhat blight resistant, but the main fact to remember is that about 1/4 of the plants on sod culture lived, whereas not over 2% are alive of the open field culture plants.  The distance between these plantings is approximately 1/8 of a mile.  In addition to being placed in sod these filberts which have survived are sheltered by rows of evergreen trees both on the south and on the north side which may be construed as of some assistance but is not altogether the reason for the tremendous difference between the winter protection value of sod and open field culture.  This is not the only example that I could cite but is one of the most outstanding ones which has come to my attention.  Sod culture is now being recommended to fruit orchardists in this part of the country and in my own experience, I can highly recommend it for apples, plums, pears, mulberries and nut trees.

Chapter 15

TREE STORAGE

If it is necessary to store trees through the winter months, one of several procedures may be followed.  If the trees are quite small, their tops may be dipped in melted paraffin or beeswax, not hot enough to injure the buds.  If the trees are too large for this to be practical, wax may be painted on with a brush.  Roots should be protected by heeling them in dirt.