372 ON TRANSPLANTING TREES. 



they should never be transplanted till the month of April has 

 gone, and that about the middle of May is the best season for 

 transplanting most of the species. Small plants, if it is intended 

 to grow specimen trees, should be preferred — and they will do 

 best if from three to four feet, or not over six feet high — unless, 

 when taller, they have been previously several times removed. 

 We have repeatedly observed that evergreens will thrive best if 

 transplanted during cloudy weather, at Midsummer ; or all the 

 above-mentioned classes may with much certainty be trans- 

 planted about the end of September, or early part of October. 

 In lifting deciduous forest trees, it is well to observe the different 

 orders in which the varieties come into leaf in spring in the 

 locality where the operation is to be conducted, and to follow 

 that order with the various varieties when the proper season for 

 transplanting them arrives. 



One law of nature too frequently overlooked should regulate, 

 to a great extent, in each locality or situation, the season for trans- 

 planting, viz., the alternations of temperature in the soil, in rela- 

 tion to the temperature of the atmosphere. The discrepancy between 

 these gives decided preference to the Autumn months over those 

 of Spring for general transplanting operations. In this climate, 

 for example, when hard frost has prevailed for a time, which is 

 often the case in the months of January and February, we usually 

 receive a considerable and continuous fall of rain, which chills 

 and soaks the soil, and upon stiff land renders all attempts at 

 trenching and digging (which should invariably precede trans- 

 plantation) worse than useless. Therefore, March and April are, 

 in our opinion, the worst months in the year for conducting the 

 operation, for not only are the cutting frosty winds at that time 

 very injurious to newly moved specimens — especially to coniferae 

 and evergreens — but, if planted at that season, they are placed 

 in soil quite unprepared for them ; and the dry season succeeding, 

 draws off all moisture necessary to induce the growth of young 

 rootlets, or cakes the already saturated clay soil around the 

 tender spongeoles, drying up their cells, and withering the very 

 mainstays of the plant's existence. Whereas, if advantage be 

 taken of fine weather, during March and April, to dig and pul- 

 verize the soil intended to receive the transplanted specimen, the 

 stirred earth, open and free, absorbs the heat of the sun's rays, 

 which, by the end of April, have begun to possess power ; and 

 by proceeding with the operations in May, a much milder tem- 

 perature exists in the root-bed of the plant, and thus a more 

 rapid propulsion of young rootlets is induced. At this period of 

 the year, the various species of Abies, Pinus, Cedrus, Cupressus, 

 Juniperus, and evergreen shrubs generally, may most advantage- 

 ously and successfully be moved ; and, with ordinary precautions, 

 success must follow attempts to lift plants of most of these 



