PLANTING AND PRUNINO. 



tree more than two inches; cover well, and let the fall rains do their work; the 

 tree is safe so far. 



As for the proper time to plant I have found by experience tliat the best is the 

 last days of October, or the first part of Xovcuibcr, for those who have only a 

 limited number of trees to place. It is true that we can remove trees as soon as 

 the leaves show the first sipjns of decay, and often very successfully. It is also 

 true that those taken up the first week in October, when properly root-pared and 

 pruned, send out small rootlets, or at least make a fine seam on the edge of every 

 clean wound, of course ready to start, and showing a protracted vitality carried 

 through the trying process; but I always found that provoking the sap in that 

 manner, and so early, and taking up and pruning always docs, more or less, gives 

 rise to a new process of vegetation out of season, and interferes with the general 

 laws of the organism of the tree. This vegetation, when checked gradually only, 

 enfeebles the tree; but if stopped suddenly by a keen frost of 10° or 11° or 20°, 

 almost always injures the bark and inner wood in an irreparable way; the same 

 thing as with the buddings starting in August, a fact well known by every nurse- 

 ryman. 



On the other hand, if we plant too late in autumn, the soil is not often well 

 fitted and in good mellow condition ; the roots having no active vitality left, do 

 not surround themselves with that non-conducting medium which is well known 

 to exist around the living and sound root, to preserve it from the injurious and 

 lasting winter soaking. Now, as far as my own experience goes, if I had only a very 

 few trees to plant, and particidarly if I had these close at hand, I should let them 

 stand in the nursery till the winter is fairly over, and as soon as the sap is about 

 to start, say in this climate in March or early in April, I should take them up 

 carefully, pare and prune moderately, and plant them at once. The healing pro- 

 cess would take place immediately, and the tree would have gone through the 

 winter trials surrounded by all the protections which Nature makes for it when 

 left undisturbed. The objection is, naturally, that we can scarcely get choice trees 

 in the nurseries in March ; that the season is very short and uncertain, and the 

 soil often very wet. 



Now comes the question, Shall we take off a few or many branches or limbs, 

 or leave all those which are not injured ? In Paris, of late, a system has been 

 eagerly advocated, which was founded on the theory, that many branches and 

 leaves call for a greater amount of sap, and make, as they termed it, a demand on 

 the roots, prompting these to display more activity, and, of course, shooting out 

 more fibres. But as we can never take up a tree of much size without disturbing 

 the roots, and as we have to suppress some injured or useless ones, the economy 

 between the roots and upper limbs is disturbed, and the tree suffers. I have seen 

 those trees taken up in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Jardin des Plantes, and else- 

 where, and they showed for a long time afterwards, signs of weakness and dying 

 limbs, the result of that disturbance in their general organism. If it is not safe 

 cut away thick stout limbs in the process of transplanting, it is a worse 



