editor's table. 



Transplanters. — Dibbers and trowels are well-known instruments for the removal of 

 plants of various kinds. In using the pointed or semicircular trowel, the young plants may 

 be taken up with a considerable ball of eartli attached to the roots, while tliey suffer no 

 injury by the process. A more perfect mode of transplanting by the use of the troM'el, is 

 tliat by taking two of these, one in each hand, thrusting tlieiu down on opposite sides of the 

 plant, at the same time drawing the handles slightly outwards ; the faces of the trowels are 

 thus made to collapse so much as to press the soil about the roots, and enable the operator 

 to take the plant, with ball entire, from the seed-bed to its destination, and to place it in its 

 new abode without the least check to its growth. We have iigured several transplanters, 

 which have been employed for such plants as the brassicse, &c. Fig. 1 is called Saul's trans- 

 planter. It may be thus described: The blades are opened by pressing the lever, a, towards 

 the handle, when they open outwards, and in this state are thrust into the ground, having 

 the plant within them; a counter-pressure causes them to collapse and embrace the ball 

 firmly, and, in this state, the instrument being drawn upwards, brings with it the plant and 

 ball entire ; it is then taken to its new place, when the handle is again pressed inwards, and 

 the blades open and are withdrawn, leaving the ball to be filled around with earth. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 2 shows a modification of the above instrument, wherein the blades are opened by 

 moving the slider, a, upwards, and when thrust down around the plant, the blades collapse 

 by pressing the slider downwards. The operation, afterwards, is the same as in Fig. 1. 



Upon the same principle, but with much more mechanical ingenuity, is McGlashan's 

 transplanter, Fig. 3, constructed, which is admirably adapted to such operations. These 

 three collapse upon the ball firmly — and not only that, by their construction they embrace 

 it tighter at the bottom than at top, rendering it next to impossible that the ball should be 

 extracted, and, also, that it cannot slip out afterwards until relieved by the removal of the 

 pressure upon it. All these transplanters are merely modifications of Fig. 4, long used, in 

 France, for similar purposes. Its principle will be readily seen by the figure. The handles, 

 a a, are pulled outwards when the blades are thrust into the ground. They are pressed 

 inwards when the operation of lifting upwards is desired. 



Drainage. — We have, from Albany, N. Y., a pamphlet setting forth the advantages and 

 profits of thorough drainage. It emanates from the manufacturers of tile, C. and W. McCam- 

 mon, and will convince the most incredulous. 



W. L. Ferris, of Throg's Neck, Westchester Co., N. Y., has sent us a catalogue of his 

 extensive nurseries, in which is enumerated a largo collection of old and new descriptions 

 of desirable trees, shrubs, and greenhouse plants. 



