DIGGING TREES. ^O 



die from the violence and abuse they received in dis- 

 placing them from the nursery. Many a person has 

 retired care-worn from business, to the farm he has 

 labored half a life-time to obtain the means of purchas- 

 ing, only to be driven back into the old mill-track 

 again, by disappointment at the result of his labor in 

 planting the imperfect, rootless trees sent to him from 

 some famous nursery. The nurseryman is usually 

 sincerely desirous that his trees should be taken up 

 carefully, and arrive in good condition; but petty 

 questions arise regarding the expense of increased 

 labor in digging or packing carefully, and his reflec- 

 tion usually is : that he " guesses they will do pretty 

 well." In pressing seasons, too, he is glad to engage 

 the most ignorant foreigner who offers; to be em- 

 ployed in digging up a tree, about whose necessities 

 the laborer knows no more than he does of the con- 

 stitution of the country of which he is, or expects to 

 be, a voter. Pat or Heinrich, with no higher idea than 

 that he is to take out a good spadeful, sets in his spade 

 close to the body of the tree, and by lifting, and piy- 

 ing, and twisting, brings out a living thing from the 

 earth, which although mangled, and torn, and cut, he 

 cannot conceive is hurt, because it does not groan. 



It is not only stupidity and ignorance with which 

 the purchaser is obliged to contend, but an utter 

 indifference on the part of the laborer to the success 

 or failure of the tree ; and his desire to exhibit a good 

 day's work induces him to hasten that part of his 

 labor in which he should exercise most care. 



In all cases, one should begin with the intention of 

 hastening no part of the digging of a tree which can 



