TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 293 



the remainder of the earth, to saturate the soil completely all round 

 the roots with water, with an unsparing hand, and then finish by 

 spreading the dry soil above. When water is poured on the surface of 

 the soil in dry weather, the deluge of water runs the surface of the soil 

 into a paste, which again hardens by the sun into a cake, obstructing 

 thus the free entrance of the atmosphere into the soil, without which 

 no plant will thrive. When straw or moss, or any other kind of 

 mulching is spread on the surface, it obviates this fault. Where this 

 cannot be done, it is better to open holes in the soil, or pare up a 

 portion of the surface, saturating the soil below, and then adding the 

 dry soil when the moisture begins to subside. One such watering will 

 be better than ten surface waterings, which often do more harm than 

 good. Where none of these plans can be adopted, the direct beams of 

 the sun should be kept from the surface by a covering of branches 

 closely spread over it. 



Taking up previously to Planting. It must be constantly borne in 

 mind that the food of plants is taken up by the delicate extremities or 

 spongioles of their fibres, which the slightest tear or bruise will 

 destroy ; that these mouths will only act when the soil in which they 

 are placed is in a moist state, and that they are easily rendered useless 

 to the plant by being kept for any length of time exposed to dry air. 

 Hence, in taking up trees, and particularly those of small size, such as 

 are grown for sale in the nurseries, the roots should be separated from 

 the soil with the greatest care, by previously loosening it at a distance 

 from the stem, and never forcibly drawing the roots out of the soil till 

 this has been done, as is too commonly practised in nurseries. It is 

 true we cannot expect to remove all the fibres of a plant of any size 

 uninjured, but by great care we may save the principal part of them. 

 For this purpose a round-pronged blunt fork should generally be used 

 for taking up trees instead of a spade, and the roots, as soon as they are 

 out of the soil, should be covered with a mat, or some other protecting 

 material, to prevent them from being dried by the air. Young trees in 

 nurseries should be frequently and regularly transplanted ; this fits 

 them for their final removal by keeping the roots near at home, and 

 causing them to become fibrous. Care should be taken in spreading 

 out the roots to allow none to cross another ; and if this cannot be 

 avoided by any other means, recourse must be had to amputation. 

 Cross roots do little harm when young, but, as in the case of branches, 

 they gall one another as they get large. 



As a summary of general rules for planting, it may be stated that 

 early in autumn, when the soil has not parted with its summer heat, is 

 the best time for deciduous trees and shrubs, and open-air plants 

 generally, but that evergreens are better planted late in spring or early 

 in summer ; that roots should be placed by art as much as possible in 

 the same position in which they would be by nature, that is, with the 

 collar at the surface, and the points of the roots and fibres more or less 

 under it, and in a descending rather than in an ascending direction, 

 excepting for fruit trees, when these conditions should be reversed, as 

 fruit and not wood is the object with these ; that the hole or pit in 



