CH. IV 



NURSERIES 



139 



Fig. 35. 



spade or transplanter, or, if they are to be taken up 

 without a ball of earth round their roots, with a 

 fork. 



In a nursery where lightness of transport is not 

 usually a very great consideration it is usual to take up 

 the seedlings with a ball of earth round the 

 roots. It may, however, happen that this 

 transport has to be considered, especially 

 when the nursery is large and the trans- 

 plants have to be taken to distant beds, or 

 when it is on a hillside and they have to 

 be carried up. In such a case the seedlings 

 may be taken up without earth, care being 

 taken to injure the root -system as little 

 as possible, and to put in the plants into 

 the nursery-lines without delay. The best 

 implement is a three- or four - pronged 

 fork (Fig. 35). The fork is driven into 

 the soil behind the seedlings and the handle 

 forced backwards. By this operation the 

 prongs are driven upwards, and they lift the seed- 

 lings, which can be picked out. Schlich 1 recommends 

 using two forks driven in on either side of a seedling, 

 and the handles forced backwards and outwards, so 

 that the prongs of the two forks meet and lift the 

 seedling evenly. 



The same operation with a spade will bring up the 

 seedlings with earth attached. When the seedlings to 

 be lifted are close together, a very usual method of taking 

 them up with earth attached is to dig a trench on one 

 side of the seedlings, making the trench of about the 

 same depth as that to which the roots penetrate. The 

 spade is then inserted on the opposite side, the handle 

 is forced backwards, and the blade of the spade lifts the 

 seedlings with earth attached (Fig. 36). When the 

 seedlings are more spaced they can be lifted by driving 

 the spade on all sides of each individual plant and 

 bringing it out with a lump of earth in the shape of an 



1 Manual of Forestry, vol. ii. 



