84 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



CHAPTER IV. 



REMOVING AND TRANSPLANTING BOTH OLD AND YOUNG 



TREES. 



The crowded roots demand enlargement now, 



And transplantation in an ampler space. 



Indulged in what they wish, they soon supply 



Large foliage, o'ershadowing golden flowers, 



Blown on the summit of the promised fruit. COWPEE'S Task. 



THE chief idea to be kept in mind, in order to transplant 

 any tree with satisfactory success, is to take up every root 

 and rootlet without the least mutilation, and bury them all 

 back again in a mellow seed-bed, no deeper nor more shal- 

 low than they were when taken up. If this could be done 

 properly, no tree would ever suffer injury from a removal. 

 The act of planting a tree is an important one. We com- 

 mit it to the soil, as we would send a youth into the world, 

 to sustain a separate and independent existence. Nursed 

 no longer under the eye of the propagator, it must contend 

 with the storms, floods, and vicissitudes of climate, with a 

 broiling sun and killing frost, developing as it best may its 

 system of branches, buds, leaves, blossoms, and fruit, ac- 

 cording to its nature, for our especial benefit, as well as to 

 add to the beauty of this pleasing world. How scrupulous- 

 ly careful, then, should we be in planting a tree an apple- 

 tree, perchance, which we expect to pour an annual offering 

 of rich, glowing, and luscious fruit in our lap ; or a pear, 

 whose melting gifts are eagerly sought after by impatient 

 cultivators, too willing to reap the harvest before they have 

 sown the crop, with intelligence, skill, and perseverance ; or, 

 still more pleasing, the soft and roseate peach, so often nip- 



