TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. 



411 



cannot support themselves, and then keeps 

 them up with an army of sticks. We pro- 

 test against the system, as one of the worst 

 ever tolerated, and hope to see it discarded 

 as altogether unworthy the notice of every 

 intelligent gardener. Horticulture cannot 



be advanced without judgment, skill, and un- 

 tiring perseverance; and he best understands 

 it as a science worthy of all his industry 

 and application, whose practice is regulated 

 by systematic experience. 



Flushing, L. I. Wm. W. VaLK, M. D. 



TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. 



BY GEORGE JAQUES, WORCESTER, MASS. 



Amid the diversified scenery of rural life in 

 New-England, there is much that has not 

 yet called into exercise the painter's pencil, 

 or the poet's pen. In journeying along our 

 dusty roads, in the sultry summer months, 

 how pleasant it is to come upon an ancient 

 farm house, standing a little removed from 

 the public highway, with a green grass-plat 

 in front, and one of those gigantic trees, the 

 American Weeping Elm, towering up in the 

 midst, casting its grateful shade over the 

 whole place. Remove that guardian tree, 

 and the witchery of the scene is gone. 



But alas ! does the owner of those 

 premises ever listen to the " music that 

 dwells in whispering boughs .^" Does he 

 not indeed cherish a sort of hereditary con- 

 tempt for trees, vvhose flowers are ornaments, 

 whose fruits are shadows ? Has he not, 

 while grinding his axe, more than once 

 thought how easily he might fell that forest 

 monarch, and convert its severed trunk and 

 limbs into — the root of all evil ? We hope 

 he has not — indeed we hope he has not ; for 

 the number of those who set a value upon 

 such things, is daily increasing, and it is a 

 blessing to the country that such tastes are 

 fast becoming popular every where. 



To those who may desire to replace what 

 the too utilitarian spirit of a former age has 

 swept away, the following mode of trans- 

 planting large trees, may not be unacceptable. 



At a distance of from four to six feet from 

 the body of the tree, which is to be removed, 

 dig a circular ditch around it, two or two 

 and a half feet deep, cutting off all the la- 

 teral roots of the tree, close to the mass of 

 earth which is left around it. This ditch, 

 dug late in the fall, must be kept free from 

 snow until the central mass of earth is tho- 

 roughly frozen. This ball of earth contain- 

 ing the roots of the tree, must now be forced 

 up with levers, and two or more strong 

 skids placed under it. By means of a strong 

 tackle — set of pulleys — this mass of frozen 

 earth and the tree altogether, may be drawn 

 up out of the hole, on to a stone-drag or 

 sled — the tree standing vertically thereon, 

 just as it grew. Thus loaded and secured, 

 it is easily drawn to the place selected for 

 it. 



The hole which is to receive the tree, 

 should be dug in the fall, before the ground 

 freezes ; the earth taken out of it, should be 

 covered with straw and boards to prevent 

 its freezing. Lay skids from the sled or 

 drag, into this prepared hole, and slide the 

 tree carefully into it. Raise up with a lever, 

 and block the mass of earth, until the tree 

 stands properly erect, and then fill in all 

 around and under it, with the loose earth 

 which has been kept beneath the straw and 

 boards for this purpose. 



Great care should be taken nut to set the 



