ON TRANSPLANTING TREES. 371 



ON TRANSPLANTING TREES. 

 [By Robert Hutchison, of Carlowrie, Kirkliston. 



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There is probably no department of estate management less 

 attended to than the transplanting of large trees and shrubs. 

 When occasion requires the removal of any large specimen 

 for immediate effect, the operation is unfortunately too frequently 

 performed with little regard to the general principles of phyto- 

 logy, far less with any special care for the individual require- 

 ments of the species. Hence it is that many failures result ; and 

 the hopes of the planter are so disappointed that in future, when 

 similar operations are necessary, recourse is had to trees and 

 shrubs of much smaller size. Indeed, the comparative cost and 

 risk of removing large plants is generally considered to be so 

 much out of proportion to the expense of lifting younger speci- 

 mens, that, now-a-days, it is the exception to find proprietors 

 removing or transplanting very large-sized trees or shrubs. 

 Preference is given to plants of small dimensions ; and seeing 

 the ignorance so often displayed by those to whom the superin- 

 tendence of this operation is intrusted, and their heedlessness of 

 all laws of nature, this is not to be wondered at. Yet true it is 

 that the operation may be performed with almost equal certainty, 

 in the case of large trees, as in that of small ones, provided care 

 be taken, and due attention be given to the habits and peculiari- 

 ties of the subject — to the proper season and circumstances at 

 the time, as well as to the nature of the soil and situation. 



In considering the question of transplanting, and for the pur- 

 pose of this paper, applying or rather restricting that term to 

 large-sized plants only — probably not under three feet, and 

 ranging up to forty feet in height —we shall first notice the season 

 and circumstances best suited for the various species. 



The habits of the different varieties of trees and shrubs are 

 so various, that the same season or the same age will hardly suit 

 any two of them for transplantation. As a general rule, how- 

 ever, we may state that the process may be carried on with 

 safety and success, at the time which will least interfere with 

 the functions of nature in the individual species. Probably, 

 about a month or six weeks before the sap begins to descend 

 (provided the weather be favourable), in the case of coniferse and 

 evergreen shrubs ; and as regards deciduous trees, as soon as the 

 leaves have performed their functions, and have completely 

 withered up, or been shed by the branches. So far as our per- 

 sonal experience of the newer coniferas goes, we have found that 



