318 



TRANSPLANTING AND PLANTING. 



ing direction, at about ten feet from the roots ; and the remaining branches 

 are shortened to from three to six inches, the cut being made close above a 

 bud. The trees are taken up in March and April, (in England, immediately 

 after the fall of the leaf would be a better time,) without balls of earth, and 

 not remarkably carefully, but precisely after the ordinary manner practised 

 in our nurseries, and they are planted in holes about three or four feet 

 square. The first year they grow but little ; the second year they may 

 be said to commence their growth, when the uppermost shoot is trained 

 for the leader. As the tree progresses, it is pruned every year, if 

 necessary, in winter or early in spring, cutting out all the cross and 

 unequal branches, and thinning those that are or may become crowded. 

 It may be thought that trees treated in this manner would all become 

 round-headed, and that they would only have about ten feet of straight 

 timber; but this does not necessarily follow, unless that form be really de- 

 sired. On the contrary, the straightest and most beautifully attenuated 

 timber is obtained by timely training the upper shoot to a stick tied to the 

 stem ; or if the uppermost shoot is emitted a few inches below the summit, 

 which is sometimes the case, it may be tied to the dying point, till it is fixed 

 in an unchangeable erect position. By attending to this, and by thinning 

 the branches, without shortening them, for a few years, they will become 

 completely subordinate to the trunk (Card. Gaz. for 1841, p. 791). This 

 we consider to be the safest mode of transplanting trees in exposed, bleak 

 situations in Britain ; more especially on the sea-coast, and in mountainous 

 districts. 



714. The staking or supporting of newly-transplanted trees, and the pro- 

 tection of their stems from cattle, require to be carefully attended to ; and 

 we shall therefore shortly notice the different modes of doing both. Fig. 

 253 shows the common modes of protecting trees which are to have clear 



stems to the height of eight or ten feet, from 

 deer, horses, or cattle ; the main posts being 

 made of oak or of larch, or of any other 

 wood charred on the part which is buried in 

 the soil, and for nine inches or a foot above 

 the ground's surface. For trees which are 

 intended to have their branches sweeping on 



_ the ground, such as cedars, pines, silver firs, 

 &c , circles of iron hurdles fastened together 



Tig. 253. The most fleneral mode* of pro- Whh b ltS and nuts sh llld be employed; 

 tecting recently-planted single trees enlarging the circle as the branches extend 

 from cattle and deer. themselves, by introducing additional hur- 



dles. These hurdles being always only a few feet from the branches, are 

 scarcely perceptible at a very short distance, and therefore are no deformity 

 in the landscape : as may be seen at Goodwood, Bicton, and many other places. 

 Trees which have had all the branches cut off in the Belgian manner, require 

 no staking, because the wind has no branches on which to act ; and their stems 

 may be protected from cattle by tying thorns or other branches round them ; 

 or laths or straight rods, or even pieces of old bark ; using as a tie, wire or 

 tarred thread. Small trees, with the branches on, may be tied to stakes with 

 bands of hay, and their stems protected in the manner just mentioned. Trees 

 of thirty or forty feet in height may be supported by guy ropes ; or if the 

 roots are strong and of some length, they may be kept in their places by 



