39G STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



If otlierwiso ; if the plant is lialf-leavcd out -wlioii received from tlie nursery, be 

 sure it is greatlv weakened and that, in case of drought, it will be the first to per- 

 ish. Without a, drought this plant will scarcely more tiian sustain itself — and 

 another year at least will be required to restore its vigor. Cutting back in such 

 cases can do no good. Its strength is spent. Last years labors have been 

 chiefly thrown away. The leaves are ready for work — the roots are not. 



In "the fall of '74, we transjilanted about 100 trees and shrubs of various 

 kinds received from nurseries. All know of the exceptionally severe winter fol- 

 lowing. A majority of them — let us say sixty per cent — were found to be dead 

 in the spring, or so badly injured that they died afterwards. This spring we 

 received and planted as many more. The drought has been as exceptionally 

 severe as was the winter of "74 and '75. Yet our losses have been less than 

 twenty-five per cent. This is not offered the reader as positive proof in favor 

 of spring transplanting, since the varieties and species of the two sets are not 

 given him for comparison. But to us who know of all modifying circumstances, 

 it is convincing that where plants have to be purchased of nurseries at such a 

 distance as to necessitate packing and shipment, the spring is greatly to be pre- 

 ferred for the climate of New York and north of it. — Ihiral JVew Yorker. 



TRA.NSPL ANTING EVERGREENS. 



I am aware that the general opinion and advice are that the time to trans- 

 plant evergreens, whether tree, shrub, or vine, is in the spring. I fell in at one 

 time with this idea, and stated that in spring, just as the new growth was form- 

 ing — just as soon as the buds began to swell — was the time to make a sure 

 thing in the transplanting of an evergreen, no matter what the variety. In a 

 long life of practice in the laying out of gentlemen's places, public grounds, 

 etc., in my way as a landscape gardener, it has come to me that error existed 

 in the aforesaid advice to plant only in spring. I reason in this way: First, 

 It is not possible for a large number of those who plant evergreens to have them 

 in spring just when they should. Second, There is always more hurry of work 

 in spring tiian in autumn, and consequently the work of planting is not as 

 tlioroughly done as it should be. Third, In the month of September and early 

 October the nurserymen are comparatively at leisure and can give more and 

 better attention to tlie digging and shielding the roots from the sun or cold 

 drying winds, before they pack. Fourth, In the autnmn, say from the first of 

 September for three months, the evergreen is as near in its dormant state as 

 ever ; the ground is warm, and from fall rains is nsually moist, without being 

 really wet, as in spring, and being warmer than the atmosphere, nature does, 

 what our best gardeners do when they propagate by bottom licat — she furnishes 

 a bottom heat and moisture in suttlciency to cause new roots or rootlets (fibres 

 if you will) to grow from the wounds made in the work of digging, by which 

 many of the supports of life, to tlio tree, or plant, are lost. This renewal of 

 new roots, made in autumn, not only aids tlie tree or plant to support itself 

 during winter, but it goes to work, in spring, and supplies food for growth ; 

 when the roots of trees planted in spring are struggling to make new fibres in 

 a cold soil with the atmosphere twenty degrees above, and calling through the 

 leaves for food. 



