370 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Deciduous trees, or trees of watery sap, are less injured by slight 

 exposure to the air, but with these we do not consider that it is of any 

 advantage to allow the roots to be exposed to a drying wind and sun. 

 Consequently, to be brief, we find it extremely necessary and important 

 to observe strictly these plain rules : 



1. Never allow a tree of any kind to be taken up in a careless 

 manner, or torn ruthlessly from the ground, as if for its destruction 

 instead of replanting. Never take from the ground a tree that has not 

 been sufficiently previously root-pruned, in order to give it an abundance 

 of fibrous roots. 



Here, in our opinion, lies one of the great causes of the many 

 failures in the planting or transplanting of trees. The root of a tree is 

 its vital power, and to the extent to which this power is diminished or 

 weakened will the growth of the tree be retarded or lessened. 



2. A tree once out of the ground, never for a moment allow the 

 roots to be exposed to the air and sun. If the trees are small, immediately 

 dip them in a solution of loam or common soil in water, of the consistency 

 of thick paste, and cover from the air. 



3. Never attempt to plant out trees unless your ground is \\\ proper 

 conditio7i. Till your ground at least one year previous to planting. If 

 upon a lawn of stiff sod or unbroken turf, prepare the places where you 

 design setting your trees one year previous to setting, by spading up the 

 sod and tilling the same. Here again lies the foundation cause of the 

 wholesale destruction of the millions of valuable trees annually slaugh- 

 tered — the careless practice of planting upon ground not properly pre- 

 pared. We have seen thousands upon thousands of as fine trees as the 

 genial and warming rays of the sun ever helped to bring forth into leaf, 

 stuck up to dry upon the prairies around Chicago, with their few dry 

 roots crowded into a little basin-shaped hole, scooped out of the raw, 

 wild sod, and covered with the same. This was c2\\q^ planting ox setting 

 out ! When will such abominations cease ? What is the result ? Nurserj'^- 

 men are charged with carelessness, dishonesty, with selling dead trees, etc. 

 That there are dishonest and unprincipled nursery-men we do not 

 pretend to deny, as it would be impossible to find any branch of industry 



• or enterprise that has not its abuses ; but that nine-tenths of the mortality 

 in the trees that die annually, in transplanting, is occasioned and is the 

 result of careless and improper planting, we have no hesitancy in asserting. 



4. As far as possible, newly-planted evergreens should be protected 

 from the influence of the hot sun for a number of days. Avoid watering 

 at time of planting out. If necessary to water at all, apply after the tree 

 is set, upon the mulch. 



With a few further remarks in reference to the species and varieties 

 ibest suited to ornamental culture, we will close. 



Among the coniferous species which we have not already mentioned, 

 we consider the Norway spruce, the white, Scotch and Austrian pines, 

 together with the balsams, red and mountain pines, the most valuable — 

 the last named, especially so, as from its trailing habit it becomes one of 

 .the most beautiful of its species, under proper bud and root pruning. 



