64 Transplanting. 



One was good for nothing, and the other seventeen I planted in 

 my garden, having cut out all the roots that had fibres, they being 

 entirely dead. One of my men said I might as well plant my 

 walking-stick. Sixteen of these are now flourishing trees, well 

 grown and well rooted, new roots being induced by means of wash- 

 ing the upper part of the tree." 



Watering the roots, even of fast-growing trees, will rarely become 

 needful if the soil is deep and is kept mellow. But whenever it is 

 performed, the surface earth should be thrown off, the water poured 

 in, and the earth replaced. This will admit the water at once to the 

 roots, and leave the surface mellow ; while by watering the top of 

 the ground, the water will perhaps fail to reach the dry soil below, 

 but only serve to harden and bake the surface. 



Mulching, or covering the ground about a tree with straw, coarse 

 barn-yard litter, or, what is still better, leaves from the woods, will 

 in nearly all cases obviate the necessity of watering. It is an excel- 

 lent protection against midsummer drouths, which so often prove 

 destructive to newly-transplanted trees after they have appeared in 

 leaf, and is a good substitute for mellow culture in places where 

 good cultivation cannot be given. It should never be omitted for 

 newly set cherry-trees. A correspondent of the Horticulturist 

 mulched fifty trees out of one hundred and fifty, all of which had 

 commenced growth alike. Those which were mulched all lived. 

 Of the hundred not mulched, fifteen perished. The weather was 

 hot and dry at midsummer. 



Trees received from a distance, and injured by drying, should 

 immediately have their roots coated by immersion in a bed of mud ; 

 and then the whole stems and branches buried in moderately moist 

 earth for a few days. They will gradually absorb moisture, through 

 the pores in the bark, and resume their freshness. Plunging into 

 water, as sometimes practised, is more liable to induce decay by 

 water-soaking. 



Season for Transplanting. Trees may be removed from the soil 

 at any time between the cessation of growth in autumn and the 

 swelling of the buds the following spring. The operation may be 

 performed first in autumn with those which drop their leaves soon- 

 est ; but any tree, when not growing, may, by stripping its leaves, 

 be removed safely. If left on, they will invariably cause the shrivel- 

 ling of the bark, in consequence of the large amount of moisture 

 they are always exhaling, and which cannot be restored through the 

 roots while they are out of the ground. 



The rule must vary somewhat with circumstances. Tender trees, 



