THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXIV. 



MAY, 1882. 



Number 281. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



"We cannot do better this month than refer to 

 the excellent hints of Miss A. G., and then take for 

 a text the following query from Mr. George 

 Wright, of Table Grove, Illinois : " I have some 

 evergreens that have been set out for ten years. 

 I want to remove them. Can I do it safely ? If 

 80, please give me some instruction how and 

 when ; they have grown thrifty and are of good 

 size." 



Evergreens, such as you described, are moved 

 here when twenty or twenty-five feet high, at 

 comparatively small cost and perfect success. 

 They can be moved up to the time the new 

 growth commences, or any time after midsum- 

 mer, when the young growth has become hard. 

 If it is, say a Norway Spruce, with a trunk nine 

 or twelve inches thick, the branches are drawn 

 in as tightly as possible about the trunk for con- 

 venience in working. A trench at least two 

 feet deep, and, say two feet wide, is dug around 

 80 as to leave what appears to be a ball of six 

 feet radius around the trunk. From this time a 

 strong digging fork is used to take all the earth 

 out from the ball. This is very easily done if 

 the approach to the stem is always made from 

 under the ball, so that the earth rather falls out 

 of the ball when the fork is put into it, than dug 



out. In this way nearly all the roots are pre- 

 served without much bruising. We have at last 

 a tree with roots twelve feet wide, and which 

 may have been, perhaps, all prepared by one 

 man by half a day's work. Then we get a pair 

 of wheels and a pole, such as lumber men use. 

 A two-wheel cart may do on an emergency, and 

 the two shafts are often better for an evergreen 

 than a single pole. Backed up against the tree, 

 with the shafts so that they can be lashed to the 

 tree, the top of the tree acts as a lever, and with 

 a rope on the top of the pole or shafts, the tree 

 comes over exactly balanced on the axle between 

 the wheels. A horse then draws the tree, root 

 foremost, to the new hole prepared for it, where 

 it is easily dropped in. The earth is then ham- 

 mered in, shovelful by shovelful, as tight as it 

 is possible to hammer it, so that there shall not 

 be a hair's breadth of a cavity left if it is possi- 

 ble to close it, and the work is done. In this 

 way two or three men and a horse can move a 

 tree twenty-five feet high in one day, and if the 

 earth is tightly hammered in, the tree, if healthy 

 and vigorous, will be almost sure to live. It is 

 no use to try to move an unthrifty tree. Its low 

 vital power will not survive the shock. Do not 

 water, this is one of the fatal practices often 

 employed. It may carry the earth to the top of 

 the roots, but the weight of water carries the 

 earth away from the under surface of the roots. 



