TRANSPLANTING TREES WITH BALLS OF EARTH. 



275 



John P. Cushing, Esq., near Boston. I un- 

 derstood, while there, that although the 

 Osage Orange, planted out as a tree, is not 

 quite hardy in the climate of Boston, yet, 

 as a hedge, it is found to be completely so. 

 This is, no doubt, owing to the short and 

 well-ripened growth of each year, upon 

 plants, so continually checked in their shoots 

 by clipping, and by being planted so near 

 each other as to prevent that sappy and re- 

 dundant growth, frequent in young single 

 specimens. 



The Buckthorn hedges, about Boston, 

 are also very fine, — some of them eight or 

 ten feet high, very symmetrical, and very 

 regularly sheared. Some of them which I 

 saw, were about ten or twelve years old, 

 and were as strong as a wall, so that a 

 man might walk along on the top. This 

 plant is so very hardy, and will grow so 

 easily and well in all kinds of soil, high 

 or low, wet or dry, in the open sun, or un- 

 der trees, that it is very valuable. 



I think justice has not been done, in 

 your journal, to the Privet, or Prim, for 

 hedgfes. 



When a person wishes a neat division in 

 his pleasure grounds, or wants to enclose 

 his garden, or to make a neat low screen, 

 the Privet is one of the best plants in the 

 world. As it is absolutely devoid of thorns, 

 it is nut, of course, fit for a fence or out- 

 side barrier. But as an ornamental hedge, 

 it is always pleasing, becoming green very 

 early in the spring, and retaining its foli- 

 age till near midwinter. 



The ease with which this plant may be 

 propagated, or a hedge " got up," is also 

 one of its greatest recommendations. You 

 have only to plant a row of cuttings, six 

 inches apart, in the early spring. Almost 

 every slip will take root, and no further 

 care is requisite, except clipping once a 

 year. The trimmings of an old Privet 

 hedge, of 50 feet long, taken in March or 

 April, and planted, will set many hundred 

 feet of new hedge. I think the neat dark 

 green foliage of the Privet is always agreea- 

 ble to the eye ; and few plants are hardier, 

 or more easily cultivated. Yours respect- 

 fully- P. W. R. 



Nete-Yori:, Nov., 184S. 



TRANSPLANTING TRSrS WITH BALLS OF EARTH. 



BY AN ARBORICULTURIST, PHILADELPHIA. 



Sir — This is the proper season for this 

 operation ; and those of your readers who 

 are not familiar with it, it may be well to 

 remind that it is the most perfect and com- 

 plete way of transplanting ever practiced 

 in a northern climate. 



Trees of large size may be transplanted 

 jn this mode with great success ; and it is 

 almost the only mode in which the opera- 

 tion can be carried on successfully, in this 

 climate. 



Many are, no doubt, somewhat acquaint- 



ed with the modus operandi of " balling" a 

 tree. It is, of course, undertaken in frosty 

 weather ; not so cold that your hands can- 

 not work in the day time, but cold enough 

 to freeze very- sharply at night. You be- 

 gin at some distance from the tree to open 

 the trench, and carefully, and gradually 

 undevjnine the roots, so as to preserve the 

 ball of earth as entire as possible. If ne- 

 cessary, it may remain in this state for 

 days, — till the weather is cold enough to 

 freeze the ball quite firm, so that it will 



