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