344 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



abruptly contracted to a smaller circumference than the upper 

 portion, and vice versa, just as the stock or the graft happens to 

 possess the freest habit of growth. The stocks should be planted 

 in rows two feet apart, and. should be one foot distant plant from 

 plant. When arrived at two years of transplanted growth they will 

 be in a fit state to graft. The grafts should be united to the stock 

 as near to the root as convenient. This facilitates the vigorous 

 growth of the tree, and allows of the earth being drawn up on each 

 side to cover the clayed portion of the graft. The clay should be 

 removed from the grafts, and the ties or bandages loosened when 

 the progress of the new shoots of the graft indicates the perfect 

 completion of the process. In the spring following that in which 

 the trees were grafted, many of them may be transplanted to 

 their permanent sites ; but it is better, as a general rule, to defer 

 transplanting until the second autumn or spring. The size of the 

 different kinds of trees most suitable for final transplanting is a 

 point of some importance, particularly when the planting is on a 

 large scale, and where the preservation of every fibre of the roots 

 of the plants cannot be accomplished without an unnecessary ex- 

 pense of time and labour. A very young plant may be readily 

 taken up and transplanted with its roots entire ; but a plant of 

 several feet in height requires considerable care in taking it up to 

 preserve its roots from injury. The structure and the functions 

 of the roots of trees, as connected with the produce and support 

 of the plant were before described, and clearly point out the es- 

 sential use of the minute rootlets and their accompanying spongeols 

 or glands to the nourishment of the plant in every stage of its 

 growth, and under every change of circumstance. Accordingly 

 we find that, if a plant is taken up and transplanted with all its 

 roots entire and uninjured, it experiences scarcely any perceptible 

 check, unless its roots are exposed to the effects of the sun and 

 wind for any considerable time, in which case it makes little, if any 

 progress for a season. A moderate degree of pruning, however, 

 of the overgrown and straggling roots of young trees, possessing 

 the reproductive power in a full degree, and of the branches of 

 their stems, is often expedient, and, when judiciously performed, 

 is beneficial : it prevents the accident of doubling up the roots. 



