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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Issue 36 (1959) → The Portable Post Hole Digger as a Tree Planting Machine

The Portable Post Hole Digger as a Tree Planting Machine

Many planting sites on the Big Bar District of the Shasta-trinity National Forest in California are too steep and rocky, or too obstructed by debris to permit the use of the continuous slit type of planting machine. Soles for the trees must be dug individually, a laborious and slow task, and one in which it is difficult to obtain truly satisfactory work from many laborers, In April 1958, a portable power post hole digger (Little Beaver) with a 2-inch auger bit was used to dig such holes. It was found that one man with the machine could keep three or four men busy planting. The machine with a 4-inch auger was again used in December, and the output of the crew contrasted with the output of the same crew using hand methods in November. A total of 30,000 trees has been planted using the machine, increasing production 30 percent per man. This includes time lost by servicing and breakdowns.


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Author(s): Leonard Nunn

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 36 (1959)