JHAP. in.] FIXING WITH WATER. 47 



Where the roots extend to a distance from the 

 tree, a greater extent of ground has to be dis- 

 turbed, both to take up the plant and to make 

 a pit for replanting it; the risk of injuring the 

 fibrous roots is increased ; and as nearly all 

 the spongioles will require to be cut off, from 

 the great length of the roots, and consequent 

 greater difficulty which will attend taking them 

 up entire, the plant will be nearly famished 

 before new spongioles can be formed to supply 

 it with food. All these dangers are avoided by 

 the nursery system of transplanting ; while the 

 inconvenience of confining the roots to so small 

 a space is obviated by placing the plant, every 

 time it is transplanted, in fresh soil. 



It is customary, when trees or shrubs are 

 transplanted to the places where they are per- 

 manently to remain, either to make a puddle 

 for them or to fix them, as it is called, with 

 water; the object, in both cases,- being to sup- 

 ply the plant with abundance of food in its new 

 situation. Care is taken, also, to make the 

 roots firm in the soil, and to let the earth pene- 

 trate through all their interstices. To attain 

 these ends, one gardener generally holds the 

 tree and gently shakes it, while another is 

 shovelling in the earth amono- its roots ; but 

 this mode has the disadvantage of sometimes 

 occasioning the roots to become matted. "When 

 the tree is to be fixed with water, after a little 

 earth has been shovelled in over the roots, 

 water is applied by pouring it from a watering- 

 pot, held as high as a man can raise it; the 

 watering-pot used being large, and with a wide 

 spout, the rose of which must be taken off. 



