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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t August 21, 1873. 



half of it.- — Joseph Powell, Gardener to Tiscoimt Harberton, 

 Treguntcr Park, Talgarth, South Wales. 



THEOKY AND PEACTICE OF TKEE-PLANTING. 

 Fkom everything we see and read it is clear tliat the great 

 part played by evaporation in successful tree-planting is not 

 generally understood, yet on this one thing alone rests failure 

 or success. It makes no difference whether it be winter or 

 summer, there is always moisture escaping. In winter it is 

 from the stems or branchlets, and in summer from these and 

 from the leaves. All this continuous loss of moisture must be 

 immediately made good by root action, or the plant is lost ; or 

 the part of the plant which suffers most goes first. It is a 

 popular notion that there is no evaporation in winter. This 

 is a fatal mistake. There is not nearly as much as in summer, 

 but still quite as much in proportion to the activity of the 

 roots. 



Now, in transplanting trees, there is but one absolute cause of 

 failure, and that is that the moisture escapes faster than the 

 roots can supply it, and therefore in transplanting, everything 

 we do should be for the encouragement of rapid root-growth, 

 or for the prevention of rapid evaporation until the roots grow. 

 Of course there are incidental causes of failure. If a tree 

 be badly dug, and half the roots cut away that ought to be on 

 it, it has a worse chance for its life than if properly dug. Or 

 if the roots be allowed to dry, the smaller roots are injured, 

 and only the thicker ones are left to carry on the water work. 

 Still it all amouuts to the one thing, which is the moisture 

 dries out of the branches faster than the roots can supply it. 



We know how this is in making cuttings, and it is equally 

 tnie of a tree. We take a piece of stem without roots, but as 

 we know it will wither, we put it in a damp greenho-use, or 

 even cover it with a bell-glass. If we did not it would dry up 

 before the roots appeared. So in out-door cuttings. If we 

 take a large Willow branch and plant it just as it comes from 

 the tree, it will likely die. The sap is escaping from all the 

 small branches, and there are no roots yet to make good the 

 waste. We cannot put a bell-gl.ass over a large Willow briiuch. 

 If we could it would check the evaporation, and perhaps there 

 would be stronger and better roots for all this top. But not 

 heing able to do this we do the same thing in another way. 

 We cut away all the small branches, leaving nothing but a 

 stake or a post, and then it sprouts out like grass on a warm 

 summer's day. Though it has no roots at all, yet such a 

 Willow stake grows better than a Willow tree with all its roots 

 and the numerous twiggy branchlets left on. 



This is the lesson for the tree-planter. A tree may, and 

 often does, grow well without any pruning of its tops ; but as 

 there is always some injury to its roots, whereby they are pre- 

 vented from immediately or fully supplying evaporation, a 

 shortening is always beneficial ; and this cutting back — some- 

 times to " bare poles," should always be proportionate to the 

 apparent injury done to the roots, or according to the amount 

 of cold, dry winter wind, or warm, hot spring weather that the 

 plant is liable to encounter. 



It will thus be seen that there is a greater risk in winter 

 from fall planting, than in the spring season from planting at 

 that time, if the trees happen to have large heads with numerous 

 branches ; but if this matter of evaporation be fully understood, 

 and the tree praned according to the season, there is no more 

 risk at one season than at another. 



This knowledge of the loss of plants by evaporation of their 

 juices can be turned into great practical value in the manage- 

 ment of young nursery stock for the winter. If set out in 

 their final places in the fall, they are pretty sure to have either 

 the sap dried out of them, or be drawn out of the earth by the 

 freezing and thawing of the ground. The best way is, there- 

 fore, to bury them wholly in earth on the ground, or in the 

 earth that slopes well, bo that no stagnant water can be about 

 the roots. One of the best nurserymen we know, who plants 

 out thousands on thousands of young trees every year, and 

 rarely _loses one in a million, gets all his young stock in the 

 fall, covers it with earth in this way, and thus has it on hand 

 to work at whatever day suits his purpose in spring. Trees of 

 larger size are also pruned at planting, and we have heard him 

 remark that in his opinion most nurseries which fail in 

 America— and hundreds of new ones annually do fail — mostly 

 do so from their failures to get stock to grow, which need not 

 be, provided they are properly handled. 



We believe this firmly, and further that half the trees annu- 

 ally planted die, the majority of which might be saved if only 



this thought of evaporation of the moisture were uppermost in 

 the minds of the planters. There is, probably, little new in 

 this chapter to intelligent horticulturists ; yet we believe it 

 will be a benefit to thousands, if we are to judge by the losses 

 we see. — {American Gardener's Monthly.) 



THE BEAUTIFUL AND USEFUL INSECTS OF 

 OUR GARDENS.— No. 8. 

 Bdttebflies, it has been remarked, are like bankers in one 

 particular, their hours of business are mostly from nine to 

 four, or something like that ; indeed, there are butterflies one 

 scarcely finds stirring much before 11 a.m., unless the morning 

 be particularly bright ; but then again, there is here and there 

 a species, like the Garden White and the Large Heath, that 

 will be on the wing until C or 7 p.ji. (A sarcastic friend sug- 

 gests that butterflies and bankers have another point of re- 

 semblance, inasmuch as butterflies make no honey, they only 

 avail themselves of that made or acquired by other objects ; 

 they cannot claim to be producers, and belong not to the in- 

 dustrial portion of the insect race.) However, it is quite 

 certain that the title of " Children of the Sun " is appro- 

 priately applied to these insects, so much do they rejoice in 

 its full rays, with rare exceptions, such as the Kinglet, which 

 seems rather partial to shady places. 



" What becomes of the butterflies at night ?" said a juvenile 

 querist, who was found, on cross-examination, to be imbued 

 with the notion that there was a fresh emergence every day 

 during the summer, and that those of the previous day died- 

 off. As some older folks have had the same misapprehension, 

 it should be noted that the life of no butterfly is quite so 

 ephemeral as that, extending certainly, even iu the case of 

 non-hybernators, to at least a fortnight. At the setting of 

 the sun, or before, butterflies disappear from view in the gar- 

 den, but it is not at once to sink into a repose which closes 

 their existence. On blades of grass in sheltered corners, on 

 the branches of trees, or on walls and palings, they settle 

 down to await the return of daylight, unless snapped-up by 

 some "early bird." Hence the dusk of evening is not a bad 

 time to look for and " settle " butterflies injurious to our gar- 

 dens; yet the entomologist is rarely welcome when he ob- 

 trudes himself, with the intent of making captures, into the 

 domains of the garden ; there is a sort of impression on the 

 mind of the horticulturist that the insect-hunter is likely to 

 leave something behind him rather than diminish materially 

 the enemy's numbers. A great naturalist of our day sorrow- 

 fully records a bit of his experience when he was following the 

 swift-winged Colias Hyale in Surrey. " It was here, in market 

 gardens forbidden to the public, that I made her acquaintance. 

 Here were employed a multitude of female Hibernians in the 

 healthful pursuit of horticulture. On one occasion my quarry 

 led me into their midst, when lo ! they abandoned their oc- 

 cupation and pursued me with the very same energy I was 

 wasting on the yellow-robed nymph ; the scene must have been 

 an exciting one, and would have reminded a classical spectator 

 of Meleager, or Orestes, or (Edipus pursued by the Furies : 

 alas! the resemblance to (Edipus is greater now!" We will 

 hope not. 



The Brimstone (Rhodocera Rhamni) is an insect not unfre- 

 quent in English gardens, though apparently not an inhabitant 

 of Scotland, and it is noticeable at two periods of the year — 

 in April, and then again in August or September. Being 

 yellow-robed like the fair favourite of the author quoted, it is 

 sometimes confounded with the common and often-annoying 

 Garden Whites, some of which appear at times with a yellow- 

 ish tinge. But E. Rhamni belongs to another family, that of 

 the Red-horns, and a glance at the short and thickened red 

 antennae at once gives us a marked distinction, and a near 

 examination of the wings in either sex renders it impossible 

 to confound this species with the only white butterfly near its 

 size — viz., Pieris Brassicffi. The females of the Brimstone 

 have a palish hue, the colour of all the wings being greenish 

 yellow, while the males are of a brilliant yellow ; the differ- 

 ences have been compared to those existent between the two 

 preparations of brimstone known as the " sublimed " and the 

 " precipitated." The most charming speciality in this butterfly 

 is the investiture of long silken hairs, which cover densely the 

 dark thorax, rising to its summit in a sort of crest. When 

 fresh from the chrysalis this butterfly is an active flyer, the 

 spring specimens, after their long hybernation, showing less 

 alertness. It is the males at that season we most usually see 

 in gardens, the females being engaged in depositing eggs. 



