Evergreens in Spring 



but the most healthy of the Pines to reap 

 the benefit of its invigorating freshness, 

 and they still had the hot summer before 

 them. 



To show the importance of moisture to A tree 

 a Pine, I will add that among the trees 

 brought, there were about a dozen that 

 had no ball of earth attached to them, 

 and reached here with perfectly bare 

 roots. Knowing it was useless to set 

 them on the hill in this condition, they 

 were all planted in a very wet place at the 

 foot of it, which is kept as a nursery for 

 decrepit and rootless trees. If from any- 

 where we receive a tree poorly provided 

 with roots, or of drooping and unhappy 

 aspect, or if we bring one home that 

 looks unpromising, into that moist spot it 

 goes, and never a tree has perished there 

 yet, no matter how forlorn a specimen it 

 was when it went into the ground. This 

 nursery is called the Tree Hospital, and 

 we find a year in it is a cure for most of 

 the ailments that roots are heir to. 



In this last experiment, the ten trees 

 planted there, though quite the worst of 

 the lot, never showed a sign of wilting 

 161 



