Material Handling Comes to the Nursery

At shipping time, the all important movement at the tree nursery is the transportation of the trees from the field to the packing shed and, later, to the method of conveyance to the plantation area. Most modern nurseries handle millions of trees in a season, some up to a million trees or more per day. These trees make for considerable bulk, yet handling must be such as not to damage the trees through injury or drying out. In the first decade of the century, nursery planting stock was packed at the seedbeds into large willow baskets. These were transported by horse-drawn sled or wagon to the processing areas where the trees were further packed before being hauled away for planting. Somewhat later in the century these baskets were replaced by various sizes of wooden crates and, of course, motorized equipment replaced the horse-drawn vehicles. The wooden crates are still used as containers for moving and storing trees in nurseries. Round metal tubs are also frequently used to transport the trees. Most nurseries now use the paper roll in packing trees for distribution to the planting areas.

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Author(s): Robert L. Evans

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 53 (1962)