Now  carefully  pack  about  them  fine
loam  soil  free  from  stone  and  rub-
bish.    Work  the  soil  about  each  root


separately  and  pack  it  solidly  with
the  foot.  Now  fill  the  hole  and  com-
pact the  earth  about  the  roots  to  hold
them  firmly  in  place  by  treading.
But  do  not  tamp  the  soil  with  a  bar
or  otherwise.  This  tends  to  prevent
the  circulation  of  air  in  the  soil  which
is   necessary  to  supply  oxygen.
Make  the  last  two  or  three  inches
of  soil  very  fine  and  let  it  lie  per-
fectly loose.  This  forms  a  mulch  to
conserve  the  soil  moisture.  Hill  up
the  soil  a  few  inches  above  the  level
of  the  ground.
The  above  practice  makes  it  unnec-
essary to  use  water  at  the  time  of
planting  when  it  might  be  injurious.
The  presence  of  free  water,  especial-
ly in  clay  soils,  tends  to  cause  the
earth  to  puddle  or  cake.  And  this
tends  to  shut  off  the  supply  of  oxy-
gen from  the  roots.
Why  Trees  Die. — The  fear  of  los-
ing trees  from  transplanting  doubt-
less deters  many  persons  from  at-
tempting this  most  attractive  kind  of
permanent  improvements.  There  is
a  kind  of  mystery  about  the  death  of
some  trees,  while  others  planted  at
the  same  time  thrive  prosperouslj\
A  study  of  some  of  the  more  com-
mon reasons  for  the  death  of  trees
will  usually  reveal  the  cause.  It  will
show  that  such  losses  can  be  pre-
vented by  the  use  of  ordinary  care.
