TRANSPLANTING TREES IN WINTER. 



properly selected, properh^ transplanted, and properly protected, not only to live, but to 

 be immediately ornamental. 



In December, 1848, I moved three elms, of about the same size as those above named, 

 in a similar manner, and they have prospered finely. Last winter I moved a rock maple 

 of about five inches diameter, which, without the loss of a single twig, went through the 

 summer apparently without the least suspicion of having been disturbed during its winter 

 sleep. That tree, however, had been something of a traveller in its youth. It was pulled 

 up in the forest and planted in the garden by a sister, who gave it to me- on her leaving 

 the homestead, about fifteen years ago. In 1844, 1 brought it seventeen miles, and placed 

 it by my house, where it grew six seasons, when I removed it with my other household 

 gods, to my present residence. I saw in the summer of 1849, at Lexington, Mass., an elm 

 a foot and a half in diameter, moved the previous winter, which succeeded admirably. On 

 the whole, I am convinced that there is no method so sure and satisfactory, of moving 

 large trees at the north, as with frozen balls of earth in winter. 



" A Constant Reader," in your January number, who speaks of recentl}^ moving elms, 

 maples, and i«/iife joints, says he shortened them in all over the tips of the branches. I 

 very much doubt the expediency of thus treating the pine. Having at least five hundred 

 now growing, which I have transplanted within three years, I have carefully observed 

 the habits of the tree. Each branch has a leading shoot, surrounded at its base by about 

 five other shoots. If the terminal bud or huds, (for there are iu winter about half a do- 

 zen together,) of the leading shoot be removed, the whole shoot, I think, alwaj's perishes 

 to its base. The surrounding shoots, it is true, Avill soon go into an election of a loader, 

 and the successful candidate will finally bend-in, and take what the Irishman called thi mid- 

 dle extreme, and the tree M-ill go on and grow; but so far as I have observed, always with 

 more or less deformity at the point of the mutilation. 



M}^ first experiment in setting white pines, Avas in June, after the trees had made most 

 of their growth for the year. They lived, but the new wood all died, which had much the 

 same effect as shortening-in. They were set in 1844, and still exhibit the ill effects of their 

 trimming, having an ungraceful crook at every point where the terminal shoot was des- 

 troyed. I should prefer upo7i evergreen trees, to cut away whole branches, if neeessarj^, 

 although by removing trees of only five or six feet height, I have found it verj^ easy to 

 take earth enough with them to preserve the top entire. 



Since my first experiment, I have moved the pine in early spring. I have found no tree 

 so easy to manage successfully, as the pine, both white and j'cllow; and having originally 

 planted them for mutual protection, much closer than they can properly grow, I have 

 since moved them from place to place, in spring, with almost as much facility as a lady re- 

 arranges her parlor furniture. 



I intended to say something, in this letter, on the subject oi^ pruning fruit trees, but 

 have already exceeded all reasonable bounds, and wiUnot venture upon a new subject. 



With much respect, Henry F. French. 



Exeter, N. H., Jan. 14, 1851. 



[A most excellent article, which we commend to all owners of sites where the " genius 

 of the bare and the bald," hold sway. Ed.] 



