220 



HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING. 



we determined, in order to improve the 

 shape of the head, to reduce the branches 

 very considerably on one side only. Those 

 on the opposite side were left at their full 

 length. Tiie tree expanded its leaves late, 

 but upon the portion headed back, they ex- 

 panded much earlier than on the remaining 

 part. About the first of July, young shoots 

 were pushed forth on all the pruned bran- 

 ches — while the unpruned branches began 

 to show symptoms of failing entirely, by 

 the shrivelling of the bark, and pale-yellow- 

 ish color of the leaves. We then headed 

 back these branches also. The good effect 

 was almost immediately felt. The perspir- 

 ing system of the tree was reduced to an 

 equality with the absorbing, and all the 

 fluids taken up by the roots were directed 

 to the growth and nutriment of a few buds, 

 instead of a great number. The tree is 

 now covered all over with a thrifty growth 

 of young wood — though the shoots are, of 

 course, by no means so long as they would 

 have been, had the shortening back been 

 applied to the whole top in the beginning. 

 Looking at these practical demonstra- 

 tions (with others that we have not room to 

 detail at present,) we are obliged to say, 

 that we must recommend, for this climate, 

 the Continental rather than the English 

 mode in transplanting. We think, in all 

 cases, where the roots of the trees are large, 

 and they have not been removed with un- 

 usual care, or where they are small and 

 have lost a portion of their roots in the re- 

 moval, a corresponding part of the branches 

 should also be pruned away before replant- 



ing them. In small trees, it will usually 

 be quite sufficient to shorten back half the 

 current year's growth ; in larger trees dou- 

 ble that quantity may be cut off with ad- 

 vantage ; and in particular cases, where 

 but half the roots, owing to carelessness 

 or bad management, have been obtained, 

 half the top should also be cut off, to pre- 

 serve the balance, and thereby the life of 

 the tree. 



In pruning trees during transplanting, a 

 judicious pruner will not dock, or cut off 

 the top with an absence of all care or res- 

 pect of natural form, as if he had brought 

 them to a guillotine, but he will shorten 

 the branches equally on all sides, so as to 

 preserve the native proportion of the head 

 — or rather, so that when the new branches 

 begin to grow, they may speedily be able 

 to reproduce the natural symmetry again. 



The only trees that must, we think, be 

 excepted from these remarks, are ever- 

 greens, and especially resinous evergreens, 

 or the Pine and Fir tribe. They suffer so 

 much less by perspiration of the leaves on 

 transplanting than deciduous trees, owing 

 to the much smaller surface of foliage, 

 which they present, and the fewer pores 

 in the leaves themselves, that a reduction 

 of the branches is by no means necessary 

 or proper in most cases. When we add to 

 this, that the leading shoot once destroyed, 

 is seldom replaced by evergreen trees, 

 without a loss of the entire symmetry of 

 the tree, it will be seen that they require 

 treatment entirely different, in some res- 

 pects, from the deciduous trees. 



The Baldwin Apple. — A correspondent 

 says this fine apple does well in Western 

 New-York, which has a climate much simi- 



lar to that of Massachusetts ; but at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, it suffers from specks of black 

 or dry rot, like those in the Fennock. 



