AUGUST. 253 



of trees. In the exposed tree the roots are prevented from supplying 

 the waste ; in the other they maintain the balance ; so that the one 

 dies and the other lives. 



Shall we now say that every case of death from transplanting is only 

 a modification of this simple process ? Indeed, it is from no other 

 cause. The tree has dried up. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that our physiological writers have 

 nearly, we may say quite, overlooked this matter of evaporation. Only 

 a few days ago, we read a very learned disquisition, showing that trees 

 should never be pruned at transplanting, because the speedy production 

 of roots was a great object ; and as the elaborated sap in the branches 

 was the matter from which roots were formed, why the more branches 

 the better for the roots. All true enough, my good friend, if you could 

 prevent the moisture from drying out in the mean time ; but there's 

 the rub, — the more surface the more waste. 



Instead of allowing the tree to lie neglected on the ground, we will 

 say that it is actually planted. The roots are more .or less mutilated — 

 that is a necessary result of removal — and many not mutilated are not, 

 even with the best care, so closely imbedded or surrounded by soil as 

 to be able to obtain the same amount of moisture from the earth they 

 could before transplanting. And now immediately follows a bitter cold 

 windy day, or a hot and dry time, when the very skies seem like brass, 

 and all nature seems languid and debilitated ; the sap is exhausted 

 faster than the roots, so circumstanced, can supply, and just the same 

 as in the totally neglected tree, it dies — dries up. 



But the result is not often so palpable. No cold winds or hot days 

 perhaps follow for a long time, but the soil is cold, and unfavourable to 

 the production of new roots, and so the tree stays in a state of rest — 

 laying up no treasures, taking no thought of to-morrow — and when the 

 adverse time does come, its sandy foundation is discovered. It dies — 

 it dries up. So we may go on through a score of illustrations. Still 

 the same explanation, the same reasoning, the same result : it dies — 

 it dries up. 



From all this it follows, that to succeed in transplanting, all that is 

 necessary is to have control of the evaporating power of the tree — to 

 prevent, in plain language, the sap from drying out of the tree, until 

 the roots have made new fibres, and thus able to supply whatever 

 demands the branches may make on them for moisture. 



There are, then, two periods when it is good to plant trees ; one is 

 when there is very little evaporation going on from the top of the tree ; 

 the other when the roots are active, and the fibres are pushing with 

 freedom and vigor, and the best time is when we can get the two to 

 work together. This is not easy. When the thermometer ranges 

 between 35° and 45°, little or no evaporation is going on — the air is 

 saturated with moisture, and a tree might be dug up, and suffered to 

 lie for a week with its roots exposed, without experiencing material 

 injury. Such times we often find in September and October, 

 February and March, and at certain times at other seasons. But the 

 opposite objection arises ; the ground is cold, and the roots, though not 

 perhaps entirely dormant, are but little active. Again in the spring 



