34 



ARBURICL'LTURE 



Rcmc)\ al of Large Trees. 



IT is certainly commendable that when 

 business men have accumulated wealth 

 and have become advanced in years, 

 they should anxiously desire the most beau- 

 tiful objects of art and nature with which to 

 surround their homes, and the possession of 

 large, stately trees, is one object above all 

 others to be secured. 



This shows an estimation of nature's 

 greatest works, for none of her efforts has 

 ever surpassed her forests. But there are 

 some things which man can never accom- 

 plish, and which nature has never attempted, 

 am(mg the.se the production of a forest in 

 a day. 



To understand how a tree has grown from 

 the tiny seed, advancing step by step in the 

 extension of its roots and branches, what 

 preserves its life and makes it a thing of 

 Iteauty, are necessary to be known in order 

 to suceeed in transplanting trees. We shall 

 attempt to show some essential facts which 

 must govern tree removals. 



There are certain trees which emit roots 

 readily from cuttings, these may be trans- 

 planted with comparative safety, even when 

 quite large, although the greater portion of 

 the roots may have been severed. Of such 

 are the willows and cottonwoods. 



Cottonwood telegraph poles have grown 

 into fine large trees in the West, although 

 rootless to begin with. Others, again, as 

 the elm, and swamp maples, have many 

 fibrous roots close by the trunk of the tree. 

 These trees may occasionally be saved when 

 they are five or six inches diameter, provid- 

 ing a large ball of earth is secured with the 

 roots. Yet it is not advisable to attempt it. 

 P.ut there are other trees, and among them 

 tho.se of greatest value, which under no 

 circumstances grow from cuttings, and hav- 

 ing long, woody roots without many fine 

 fibers, except at the extremities, they can- 

 not be successfully mcjved, except while 

 quite small. The oaks, hickory, sugar- 

 maple and walnut belong to this class. 



In the natural forest or open ground, 

 trees extend their roots farther and farther 

 from the tree each year, and after a score 

 or more years have passed, the fine fibrous 

 feeding roots are twenty or more feet from 

 the trunk. 



.V good rule may be that the extremities 

 of the roots are half as far from the tree 

 as its height. If sixty feet high the roots 

 extend thirty feet in every direction. 



In the earlier periods of its growth the 

 soil has been exhausted of its particular ele- 

 ments of food, and the roots near the tree 

 have become woody, hard and without 

 numerous fibers. 



Every particle of nourishment received 

 by a tree must be in solution with water 

 and be absorbed by the millions of micro- 

 scopic root fibers, conveyed through the 

 larger roots to the trunk, and upward 

 through the cells of the wood, to the 

 foliage. 



These large roots are incapable of absorb- 

 ing nourishment, but new fibers must be 

 formed before the tree can receive food, and 

 the facility with which a tree can provide 

 these millions of delicate rootlets and push 

 them out where food and moisture may be 

 obtained, will determine how soon it may 

 recover from the loss of its root system, 

 and begin to advance in growth. 



Because a tree retains its leaves and has 

 some appearance of life is no evidence that 

 the tree will live and become thrifty. 



There is stored up in the trunk of a tree 

 a quantity of sap. As the buds expand and 

 leaves evaporate moisture, this is supplied 

 by the tree giving up its life blood, the sap, 

 and this may continue a year or two, but it 

 is gradually exhausted of its vitality, unable 

 to overcome the attacks of insects and 

 disease, and finally dies. 



¥ ¥ ¥ 



MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE'S 

 EXPERIMENT. 



At the corner of Ninety-second Street and 

 Fifth Avenue. Xew York C'ity, Mr. Carnegie 

 is building a palatial man.sion and has 

 brought from the farms many miles away, 

 some score or more of fully grown forest 

 trees. 



A few are cottonwood, which are alive. 

 Some are elm. twelve inches diameter, which 

 may possibly survive. The others are sugar 

 maple, from twelve to sixteen inches diam- 

 eter and sixty feet high. All the branches 



