278 TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



* 



situation, and probably as much or more upon the completeness of the 

 ball and the number of roots that are safely removed with it. No 

 large tree taken up from a moist soil will thrive if transferred to a dry 

 one ; and, on the contrary, a tree taken up from a dry soil, that would 

 do little good when transferred to another dry soil, will yet thrive if 

 planted in a soil that is moist. This mode of moving trees entire, 

 with the whole of their roots and branches complete, has been 

 carried out with great success by Mr. Barron, of the Borrow-wash 

 Nurseries, near Derby. With the assistance of his transplanting 

 machines, and his skilful management, no tree can be pronounced too 

 large to be safely removed. He has taken up trees from fifty to sixty 

 feet high, transported them for hundreds of miles, and they have 

 started into growth with full vigour and robust health. An illustra- 

 tion of a transplanting machine, much and successfully used by the 

 French, who have now become great adepts in the transplantation of 

 large trees, is given at pp. 287 and 288 of this work. 



Transplanting by Shortening the Roots, so as to induce them to throw 

 out Fibres. This is effected by digging a circular trench round the 

 tree, one or two, or even three or four years before transplanting, 

 cutting off all the roots which extend as far as the trench, and filling 

 it up with prepared soil, or with the surface soil and subsoil mixed. 

 The distance of the trench from the stem of the tree may vary with 

 its size, the kind of tree, and other circumstances ; but a good general 

 rule would be, where the tree is to stand from two to four years, to 

 make the diameter of the circle included within the trench of as many 

 feet as the diameter of the trunk of the tree at the surface of the 

 ground is in inches. Thus, for a tree with a stem six inches in 

 diameter, the trench should be made at the distance of three feet from 

 it on every side ; and for one of eighteen inches in diameter, the 

 distance of the trench from the stem should be nine feet. The width 

 and depth of the trench should also be proportionate to the size of the 

 tree, and to the period which is to intervene between its preparation 

 and removal. It is evident that where the tree is to stand three or 

 four years after its roots are cut, more room should be left for the 

 extension of the fibres, than when it is to stand only one year ; unless, 

 indeed, the roots could be confined, as if in a pot, by the hardness of 

 the outer side of the trench ; in which case they might after removal 

 be spread out at length. It is evident also that when a tree is to stand 

 only one year after making the trench, the trench should not only be 

 made narrower, but at a greater distance from the stem, in order that 

 a greater length of old root may be taken up to serve in lieu of the 

 new roots made when the tree stands three or four years before 

 removal. The width of the trench can never conveniently be made 

 less than eighteen inches, and its depth should not be less than two feet, 

 in order to cut through the lower roots ; since it is chiefly by the fibres 

 that will be produced by these that the tree will be supplied by fluid 

 nutriment to support the perspiration of its leaves the first year after 

 transplanting. In making the trench, it is not, in general, desirable 

 to undermine the ball of earth, so far as to cut through the tap-root, 



