204 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



root close to the stem, and all ends that may happen to have got accidentally 

 bruised, and, having roughly estimated the quantity of root lost or injured, 

 make amends by reducing the head in proportion. Cut out all weak shoots 

 close to the stem, and remove any that grow upward or cross each other in the 

 center, retaining only the best branches in the best positions, and if any of 

 them be too long, shorten them. Then, having made a pit large enough to 

 hold all the roots, fill in with some soft, well-worked soil, and press the roots 

 into position, without bruising them. Hold the tree upright while the hole is 

 being tilled in, and shake it, in order that the soil may get well worked in be- 

 tween the roots. When the tree is properly placed, fill up the rest of the hole, 

 and tread it well in, not by pressing the soil close to the stem, but by treading 

 on it all round where the points of the roots are. When pretty firm, drive in 

 three stakes, in a sloping direction, so as to meet at the stem, and to these 

 fasten the tree, so as to prevent wind-waving. A much neater way, however, is 

 to drive three posts into the ground, in the form of a triangle, and nail some 

 slabs to them. 



I have removed cedars, thirty-five feet high, and fastened them quite securely 

 in this way, the posts being driven into the ground six feet deep. But though 

 •deciduous trees show us so well when they are at rest, that period is not so 

 apparent in the case of evergreens. It needs close observation to ascertain 

 when they are at rest. With some it is at midsummer, with others, later; but 

 the cause of so many failures in transplanting evergreens is moving them when 

 they are in active growth. If the foliage has attained its full size and proper 

 •color, and if the last growth made has assumed the same color as the rest of 

 the tree, it may be transplanted with safety. If the ground where the trees 

 are to be planted is dry, it must be well watered ; and even on the branches the 

 garden engine must be used if the weather is warm. Plants taken out of peat 

 form an exception, for it frequently happens that a ball of earth, larger than 

 the entire root space, lifts with them, and they are thus unaffected by removal. 

 They do not, indeed, lose a fibre. To recapitulate, planting successfully con- 

 sists, first, in removing a plant from the place in which it grows, without dis- 

 turbing its roots much ; secondly, if any roots have been lost, cut in the head 

 so as to lessen the work which the roots that remain have to do ; thirdly, in plac- 

 ing the tree again in the ground where it is to stand, solidly, and with the roots 

 as nearly as possible in the position in which they were before removal ; and, 

 lastly, in supplying moisture, if it be deficient, and in so fastening the tree in its 

 place that it shall not afterwards be injured through wind-waving. 



Rablet, Herts. Edwakd Bennett. 



[W'c think it right to add that, as regards moving evergreens, in many cases 

 in modern practice, trees are frequently removed with perfect safety when in 

 .active growth.] — The Garden. 



PKEPAEATION FOK THE GARDEN. 



Prof. W. J. Bcal gave a few practical, common-sense hints upon garden 

 matters before the Michigan Agricultural College Alumnus Club the other 

 evening. He said they were truths that were well known, and ought to be in 

 general employment, but too often were utterly neglected. 



