SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



171 



be well prepared and mellowed by cultivation for a year or two 

 previous; so that the sward, if it has been in grass, be well re- 

 duced ; and before planting it should be subsoiled. If a subsoil 

 plow cannot be had, trench plowing, by running the plow a second 

 time in the same furrow, will loosen the soil to a greater depth, but 

 with the disadvantage of bringing more of the subsoil to the sur- 

 face than is desirable. 



■ Transplanling. The skill, or the lack of it, with which trans- 

 planting is performed, has so much to do with subsequent success 

 or failure, that it is of great importance that it be done properly. 

 Some people plant a tree as they would a post, apparently think- 

 ing that the office of the roo^ is only or mainly to keep the stem 

 in an upright position ; but no view could be more erroneous, for 

 the roots are the true feeders, as well as the mechanical supporters 

 of a tree, and they require a pasturage ground, good enough and 

 of sufficient extent, and also an opportunity to a,vail themselves 

 of it. Transplanting, at best, is an act of violence, (unless the 

 plant moved has been grown in a pot, so that the roots can be 

 secured entire). It is impossible to transplant from the. open ground 

 without a greater or less mutilation of the roots, and the less the 

 better. Very few are aware of the actual extent of this multila- 

 tion in ordinary practice. The subjoined cut may help give some 



idea of it ; (a) denoting the collar of the tree, and the dotted circle 

 marking the extent of the roots lifted with the tree ; those outside of 

 it being left in the ground. As before remarked, the roots usually 

 extend as far as the tops, sometimes considerably farther ; and as it 

 is only at the extremities that the spongioles or feeders are found, 



