The Canadian Horticulturist 285 



tion. There is so much bare ground between them that they are liable to be 

 heaved out. On sandy or gravely soil where the drainage is good, there is no 

 danger. Even on clay soil, the danger is diminished by having good surface 

 drainage, and the soil well firmed ; and also by setting the plants early enough 

 so that they may become well established before freezing weather comes — -M. 

 Crawford, Cuyahoga Falls, O. 



TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS. 



a^^^^£^ 



BELIEVE that autumn is a favorable time for transplanting 



Conifers. I may add that when the conditions are favorable, 



« August is a better month than September, and the last half 



"^J..^ of July is quite as good as August, since nearly all Conifers 

 VJ^--^ finish their season's growth before the 4th of July. My first 

 experiment in summer transplanting was made more than 

 thirty years ago. At that time many writers were stating in 

 the agricultural papers that June was the best month for 

 transplanting evergreens, and even Henry Ward Beecher 

 wrote an account of his success in transplanting at that time, although June is 

 the worst month in the season, as Conifers are then making their most vigorous 

 growth. We bedded out more than fifty thousand Pines, Firs and Spruces, 

 beginning on the 5th of July and ending on the 25th of September, during 

 which period we planted every day except Sundays. Each planter had a tin 

 pan in which the trees stood in a puddle while he was making a trench. We 

 placed a few branches with the leaves on around the beds so as to give the 

 young trees a partial shade, but at the end of four days these branches were 

 removed to the new plantings, and we found that the first plantings were throw- 

 ing out new roots. Of all the trees transplanted we did not lose five per cent., 

 except of the Pines, which were transplanted in September, and not one of the 

 Pines which were planted after the middle of September survived the winter. 

 Experience confirms what one would naturally suppose, that planting trees in 

 full foliage late in autumn must be unsafe, for after the ground is cold, and the 

 air is cold they will not throw out roots to supply the moisture which evaporates 

 from the leaves. The trees we planted in July and August looked, on the 

 following autumn, like trees which had been transplanted two years. We find 

 little loss in transplanting Conifers of medium size in summer or early autumn, 

 but our experience teaches that it is not advisable to ship Conifers when there 

 is danger of hot or drying weather, with the chances of delay in transit and 

 neglect at their destination. 



I am satisfied by long experience that the safest period for transplanting 

 Conifers is that from the time when the ground is settled in spring until the 

 tree begins to make new growth. — Robert Douglas, Waukegan, III. 



