TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS. 



135 



no more pains on evergreens than on the j 

 hardiest forest tree ; while persons under- I 

 taking to transplant evergreens in summer, j 

 (say August,) bestow unusual care : in the 

 first place they have them taken up with all 

 the care possible, and have them planted in 

 the same manner, and they also pay unu- 

 sual attention to the after treatment in 

 shading, watering, etc., should the season 

 require it. 



We speak of the month of April, that 

 month being the season at which the growth 

 in evergreens commences in this latitude. 

 Farther south, March would correspond, 

 and farther north May. This point, how- 

 ever, is most important : that evergreens 

 are moved with the most success in the 

 northern half of the Union, when lifted 

 just at the moment their buds are beginning 

 to swell, of in other words, just as vegeta- 

 tion has commenced. If taken before this 

 time, while the tree is quite dormant, suc- 

 cess is not so certain, for evergreen trees 

 do not possess the same vital energy to com- 

 mence pushing out new shoots after being 

 disturbed by removal, that deciduous trees 

 do. On this account many experienced 

 planters prefer delaying the transplanting 

 of evergreens till they have fairly started 

 into growth — say of half an inch to an inch 

 at the ends of the shoots. And we must 

 confess that we have had excellent success 

 in removing thenl as late as May, and when 

 they were considerably advanced. 



We are satisfied that the same amount of 



care bestowed in transplanting a given num- 

 ber of evergreens in April, about the time 

 they first show symptoms of being excited 

 into growth, and just before the buds are 

 developed, that is bestowed upon a like 

 number of trees moved in August, that in 

 nineteen cases out of twenty, success will 

 be greater at the former season of the year, 

 than at the latter. We cannot but think an 

 evergreen tree in April, is in a better con- 

 dition to be moved, than it possibly can be 

 in August, when, instead of the earth being 

 moist, it is hot and dry; the probabilities of 

 a damp atmosphere, after transplanting, are 

 much greater, too, in spring than midsum- 

 mer. Every planter is well aware that 

 upon the favorable continuance of cloudy 

 weather even more than rain itself, depends 

 the emission of roots by newly moved ever- 

 greens. 



Transplanting in winter, with frozen balls 

 of earth, is a well known and very capital 

 mode of moving large specimens of ever- 

 greens. It requires time and patience and 

 the co-operation of several hands and a sled 

 with a pair of horses or cattle, etc. ; but as 

 trees skilfully removed in this way, suffer 

 but very little by the removal, and as they 

 may be made to produce considerable ef- 

 fect immediately, it is a mode deserving the 

 attention of all ornamental planters. Sir 

 Henry Stewakt's advice of choosing trees 

 that stood naturally in an exposed or open site^ 

 if attended to,- will greatly add to the cer* 

 tainty of rapid growth. A. Saul. 



Rhubarb or Pie Plant Poisonous. — We 

 have noticed several instances mentioned in 

 our exchange papers, of individuals being 

 dangerously taken sick after having eaten 

 the leaves of the Rhubarb plant cooked as 

 greens. A late English paper also gives 



a case where severe sickness was incurred 

 by eating tarts made of the swelling buds. 

 The presence of oxalic acid, which is a 

 strong poison, in the leaves, is said to be 

 the cause. No part of this plant, therefore, 

 should be used but the stems of the leaves. 



