Then
fill the hole with sandy loam in which the tree is to be set. The sandy
loam would give the young tree a good start, while the lining of hay
would break up the capillary attraction between the filled-in sand and
the ground-water in the surrounding alkali-charged soil.
The fresh soil which you put in would before long be impregnated through
the surface evaporation of the rising moisture, which your straw lining
would not long exclude. The trees would not be permanently satisfactory
under such conditions as you describe, though they might grow well at
first. It would be interesting, of course, to make a small-scale
experiment to demonstrate what would actually occur and it would,
perhaps, give you a chance to sell out to a tenderfoot.
Planting in Mud.
Why does ground lose its vitality or its growing qualities when it is
plowed or stirred when wet, and does this act in all kinds of soil in
the same way? We are planting a fig and olive orchard at the present
time, but some were planted when the ground was extremely wet. The holes
were dug before the rain and after a heavy rain they started to plant.
After placing the trees in the holes they filled them half full with wet
dirt, in fact so wet that it was actually slush. What would you advise
under the circumstances and what can be done to counteract this? We have
not finished filling in the holes since the planting was done, which was
about a week ago.
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