chap, in.] TRANSPLANTING. 49 



soon as it is taken out of the around in wet 

 moss, and covered with bast matting; and, 

 where moss cannot be procured, they should be 

 dipped in very wet mud, and then matted up. 

 Cabbage plants are frequently preserved in this 

 manner; and are conveyed, without any other 

 covering to their roots than a cake of mud, to 

 a considerable distance. In all cases where 

 plants are taken up long before they are re- 

 planted, their roots should be kept moist by 

 opening a trench, and laying the plants along it, 

 and then covering their roots with earth. This 

 gardeners call laying plants in by the heels. 

 Where this cannot be done, and the plants are 

 kept long out of the ground, their roots should 

 be examined and moistened from time to time ; 

 and, before replanting, they should be laid in 

 water for some hours, and afterwards carefully 

 examined, and the withered and decayed parts 

 cut off. 



In removing large trees, care is taken to pre- 

 pare the roots by cutting a trench round the 

 tree for a year or two before removal, and 

 pruning off all the roots that project into it. 

 This is to answer the same purpose as trans- 

 planting young trees in a nursery; while the 

 bad effects of contracting the range of the 

 roots is counteracted by filling the trench with 

 rich fresh earth. The removal is also con- 

 ducted with much care ; and either a large ball 

 of earth is removed with the tree, or the roots 

 are kept moist, and spread out carefully at full 

 length when the tree is replanted. Some plan- 

 ters, before removing trees, mark which side 

 stood to the south, in order to replant them with 



E 



