WHEN AND HOW TO PLANT TREES. 



WHEN AND HOW TO PLANT TREES. 



BY WILLIAM SAUNDERS, LANDSCAPE GARDENER, GERMANTOWN, PA. 



EE,Hx\PS some of your readers may think tliat enougli 

 has been written upon this subject, especially those that 

 are aware of the amount of valuable information that has 

 of late years been given through the cviltural press, but 

 when we consider that thousands are annually directing 

 their attention for the first time to rural affairs, who have 

 never read a page on the subject, and that there is still 

 much to be learned even by the most experienced ; inter- 

 change of observations and ideas is a necessary stimulus 

 for our mutual advantage, as well as proving highly ben- 

 eficial to all who need instruction. 



Many experienced and successful cultivators are deterred, or at all events excuse 

 themselves for not giving publicity to their knowledge, on the grounds that they 

 cannot ofi"er anything new, but the record of experience and facts is always valuable, 

 as corroborative of good or bad results. It is indeed diificult to ofiier new principles, 

 for even with the vinquestiouable advantages derived from chemistry, and the physi- 

 ological investigations of scientific men, during the last twenty years, we have not 

 much improved in tree culture over our forefathers. In a work now before me, 

 bearing date 1785, the whole process of rearing, planting, and managing trees is 

 treated as clearly, concisely, and in as practical a manner as can be oifered now. 

 In his introductory remarks, the author is equally to the point; he says, "We beg 

 to caution the planter in the strongest terms against a want of spirit. A slovenly 

 planter ranks among the most extravagant order of slovens; the labor, the plants, 

 and the ground are thrown away. We therefore advise all such as have not indus- 

 try, spirit and perseverance to go through with what they undertake, to let it alone ; 

 and we recommend to such as are possessed of these valuable qualifications, to begin 

 upon a small scale and let their operations increase with their experience. 



" Whilst, however, we caution against entering prematurely upon the business of 

 planting, we cannot refrain from mentioning the pleasures which result from it. 

 How rational, and to a contemplative mind how delightful, to observe the operations 

 of nature ; to trace her in every stage, from the seed to the perfected plant, and, 

 from beneath the leaf stalk of this, through the flower buds, the flower, and the seed 

 vessel, to the seed again. Man must be employed, and how more agreeably than in 

 conversing with nature, and in seeing her works, assisted by his own hands, rising 

 into perfection. 



Nor do we mean to hold out pleasure alone as an inducement to plantin 

 profits are great, when properly executed, and this idea adds solidity to the 



