86 A MANUAL OF FORESTRY. 



9. Lifting Plants. 



Plants must be lifted with the least possible damage, 

 especially to the root-system, and least of all to 

 the fine rootlets through which the assimilation of 

 nourishing substances is effected. These fine rootlets 

 are generally imbedded in small lumps of earth, which 

 should not be shaken off. In the case of yearlings the 

 rootlets are found on the taproot or its branches; on 

 older plants they are principally found on the side 

 roots. 



The least interference with the roots occurs if the 

 plants are lifted with a ball of earth, in which the root- 

 system is imbedded; this method is specially recom- 

 mended for very young or tender plants. In the case of 

 older plants, lifting with balls and transport become very 

 expensive, so that whenever admissible they are lifted 

 without balls of earth. 



a. Lifting Plants with Balls of Earth. 



The operation is performed with a variety of instru- 

 ments, such as the circular spade, the hoe, the conic 

 spade and the ordinary spade, according to the size of 

 the desired ball. 



Young plants, up to a foot in height, may be lifted 

 with the circular spade (Fig. 42), provided the species 

 does not develope a long taproot at an early stage. This 

 instrument, which was invented by Carl Heyer more 

 than 60 years ago, consists of an iron inverted trun- 

 cated cone, which has in front an opening sufficient to 

 admit two fingers, and behind, just above its upper edge, 



