TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 313 



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

 in the absence of so many lateral roots. 



707. Sir Henry Steuart's practice in transplanting large trees belongs to 

 this division of the subject; and as it has. been attended with success at 

 Allanton, where the trees, which had been transplanted from ten to twenty 

 years (which we examined in August 1841), are still continuing to thrive, 

 we shall give a short outline of Sir Henry's process. In selecting the 

 trees to be transplanted, he endeavours, if possible, to take only those, 

 the stems and branches of which have been exposed to the free air and 

 weather on every side ; but as he cannot always get such trees, his next 

 resource is trees which stand in the margins of plantations. Supposing one 

 of these to be 25 feet high, a trench 30 inches wide is 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 the distance of six feet or seven feet, if it 

 is meant to stand only two years. If the tree is to stand four or more years, 

 the trench is cut to the full depth of the subsoil, in order to get somewhat 

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

 after which the soil and subsoil are returned, well broken and mixed toge- 

 ther. If the tree is to stand only two years, the same method may be fol- 

 lowed, but with this difference, that on the sides most exposed 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, so that when taken up at length, they may act as stays against the 

 winds. (Planter's Guide, 2d ed. p. 219.) In taking up the tree for removal, 

 the greatest care is used to preserve the minutest fibres and the spongioles 

 entire ; and to accomplish this, a new trench is 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 pointed instrument or a pick is employed for picking out 

 the soil from among the young roots ; and care is taken that the operator 

 never strikes across the roots, but as much as possible in the line of their 

 elongation, always standing in the right line of divergence from the tree as a 

 centre. 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 



