In planting, do the roots need special care?

John Burroughs, the eminent naturalist, wrote to the principal of a school in Pennsylvania:

"I am glad to hear that your pupils are going to keep Arbor Day; if you can teach them to love and to cherish trees, you will teach them a very valuable lesson. . . . Give the tree roots plenty of room and a soft, deep bed to rest in; tuck it up carefully with your hands. The roots of the tree are much more soft and tender than its branches and cannot be handled too gently. It is as important to know how to dig up a tree as how to plant it. A friend of mine brings quite large hemlocks from the woods and plants them on his grounds a'nd has no trouble to make them live. He does much of the work with his hands, follows the roots along and lifts them gently from the soil, and never allows them to dry. The real feeders of the tree are very small, mere threads; the bulky, muscular roots are for strength; its life is in the rootlets that fringe them, and to let these delicate feeders dry, even by an hour's exposure to a drying air, is to endanger the vitality of the tree. By the way, in your planting do not
forget the hemlock. It is a clean, healthy, handsome tree. Do not forget the ash, either, if only for the beautiful plum-colored foliage in autumn. Above all, do not forget the linden or basswood, a tree generally overlooked by our arborists. It is as pleasing as maple in form and foliage, and then it is such a friend of the honey bee. What a harvest they get from it, and just when other sources of honey supply begin to fail.

"I have somewhere said that when you bait your hook with your heart the fish always bite, and I will now say that when you plant a tree with love it always lives; you do it with such care and thoroughness."