TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 279 



because this main root is necessary as a source of nourishment, in the 

 absence of so many lateral roots. 



In selecting ft^es to be transplanted in this manner, it is well, if 

 possible, to take only those which have been exposed to the free air 

 and weather on every side ; but as we cannot always get such trees, 

 the next best are those which stand in the margins of plantations. 

 Supposing one of these to be 25 feet high, a trench 30 inches wide 

 should be opened round it at a distance of three and a half feet, if it is 

 meant to stand for four years or upwards after the operation ; and at 

 a distance of six or seven feet, if it is meant to stand only two years. 

 If the tree is to stand four or more years, the trench should be cut to 

 the full depth of the subsoil, in order to get somewhat underneath the 

 roots. If the subsoil be wet, a drain should be made from the trench, 

 and the soil, if good, returned, or if inferior, a compost should be sub- 

 stituted for it. If the tree is to stand only two years, the same method 

 may be followed, but with this difference that on the sides most ex- 

 posed to the wind, which in this island are generally the south-west, two 

 or perhaps three of the strongest roots should be left uncut, and allowed 

 to pass entire through the trench, to act as stays against the winds. In 

 taking up the tree for removal, the greatest care must be taken to pre- 

 serve the minutest fibres and the spongioles entire ; and to accomplish 

 this a new trench should be made exterior to the old one, so as not to 

 injure any of the new fibres which have been protruded into the prepared 

 soil. A fork or sharp pick is the best instrument for this purpose, and the 

 utmost care must be exercised when removing the earth, not to cut or 

 bruise the roots. The picking away the soil from the roots may reach 

 within three, four, or five feet of the stem, according to the size 

 of the tree ; and a ball of earth, with two or three feet broad of 

 the sward adhering to it, should be left undisturbed round the collar. 

 The tree may now be pulled over, and raised out of the pit. 

 The following was Sir Henry Steuart's mode of effecting these two 

 operations : 



Pulling Down the Tree and Raising it out of the Pit. " A strong but 

 soft rope, of perhaps four inches in girth, is fixed as near to the top of 

 the tree as a man can safely climb, so as to furnish the longest possible 

 lever to bear upon the roots ; taking care at the same time to interpose 

 two or three folds of mat, in order to prevent the chafing of the bark. 

 Eight or nine workmen are then set to draw the tree down on one 

 side. Or it is a good way, if you have an old and steady-pulling horse, 

 to employ him in this business. For it is plain that one stout horse, 

 acting forcibly on the rope, will do more than twenty men, even if so 

 great a number could get about it ; and, moreover, he will save some 

 manual labour in excavating, by giving an effectual pull at a much 

 earlier period of the work. Next to an old and steady horse, heavy 

 oxen are to be preferred, for these have been known to drag timber out 

 of plantations where horses were defeated, in consequence of the 

 rugged nature of the surface. Horses make one very spirited pull, but 

 rarely a second, if they have been checked by the first. Oxen, on the 

 other hand, appear less sensitive, and bear steadily and slowly onward 



