218 



HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING. 



can be considered perfect — that is to say, 

 in which the natural balance of roots and 

 branches is completely preserved, is when 

 a plant in a pot is transplanted with its 

 ball of roots entire. In this instance, since 

 not a root is lost, the plant suffers no check, 

 and hence this kind of transplanting may 

 be performed successfully at any season. 

 But every one familiar with the transplant- 

 ing of trees and shrubs, as it is, and must 

 be ordinarily performed, verj^ well knows 

 that it is difficult or impossible to preserve 

 all the roots — and that, except in the case 

 of favorite specimens, removed with espe- 

 cial care, a very considerable portion of the 

 delicate fibres most essential to the supply 

 of nourishment is lost. 



Such being the case, (even in what is 

 considered in this country, careful trans- 

 planting,) how much should the branches 

 of the tree be reduced to keep up the ba- 

 lance ? 



A good deal of attention to this subject 

 within a few years, has forced us to believe, 

 against our earlier opinion, that a pretty 

 severe shortening back of the head of a 

 tree, is most decidedly beneficial, in all 

 cases, except where the tree is so young 

 that it has suffered no loss of roots in 

 removal, or where the operation of lak- 

 ing it up has been performed with such ex- 

 traordinary care as to preserve the balance 

 of roots and branches. 



There are also other circumstances be- 

 sides the disturbance of the natural propor- 

 tion of these parts of a tree, which have a 

 decided influence on its success and vigo- 

 rous growth after being transplanted. 



The most important of these is the mois- 

 ture of the climate. As it is well known 

 that slips or cuttings of many trees and 

 shrubs, will take root readily in a moist 

 season, or in a damp situation, which almost 

 entirely fail in a dry one, so the facility 



with which transplanted trees take root and 

 recover their normal condition of growth, 

 is far greater in a moist climate than in a 

 dry one. Hence, it is evident, at a glance, 

 that, in a country as moist as Great Britain, 

 transplanting is much more easily perform- 

 ed, and trees will much more rapidly reco- 

 ver from the shock of removal, than in a 

 country where there is more solar heat, and 

 a less frequent and copious supply of rains. 



This accounts, no doubt, for the very 

 strongly marked difference in the practice 

 of England and the Continent, in trans- 

 planting trees. While in the former coun- 

 try, trees, and trees of large size, are most 

 frequently removed with their heads entire, 

 or nearly so, in France and Germany it has 

 long been the practice (commended too by 

 by such able physiologists as De Candolle 

 and Thouin,) to head back the tops of 

 transplanted trees, in the severest manner, 

 before planting them. 



In a dry climate, and under the influence 

 of bright sunshine, it is much more neces- 

 sary to reduce the branches equally with 

 the roots, since the perspiration of the 

 leaves in the latter case is double that in a 

 moist climate. Indeed, not only do the 

 buds and leaves perspire, but the whole of 

 the bark of the younger branches suffers a 

 loss of fluids through its pores in a dry 

 atmosphere. 



Hence, as it is evident from theory alone, 

 when these circumstances are all considered, 

 it is only by reducing the head that Ave can 

 prevent this excessive drain upon the fluids 

 collected by the roots of the newly moved 

 tree, which, if too great, must prove fatal to 

 its life.* 



For the last two seasons, an orchardist on 

 the Hudson, who is a pretty extensive plan- 



* It is owing to this disproportion, that many trees in this 

 country, which start into leaf, and grow very well till July, 

 die when the greater perspiration of the leaves takes place in 

 that month. 



