30 AMERICAN HANDBOOK 



and thin ; others branch and re-branch in 

 every direction. So it is with their roots. 

 The sour-gnm throws out a few strong roots, 

 scarcely making a single fork; while the 

 linden throws out an abundance of rootlets 

 in every direction. If we attempt to take 

 up a specimen of the former by the common 

 practice, that is, by opening a trench but a 

 few feet from the trunk, we find that though 

 we may have a great many roots, we have 

 very few or no fibres. They are left with 

 the roots in the ground, at their extremities. 

 Such a tree is reduced to the condition of a 

 mere cutting, and without the treatment pro- 

 per for a cutting, cannot grow. Trees taken 

 up by the same mode, that have an abund- 

 ance of branching roots, are more likely to 

 have fibres near the stem, and so succeed. 

 This constitutes the chief difference between 

 a tree that will " remove easily" and one 

 which will not. 



10. It should be an early inquiry whether 

 a tree proposed to be transplanted have the 

 above-mentioned conditions of success or 

 not. A tree from a nursery has been trans- 

 planted when very young, perhaps several 



