AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 245 



If trees could ordinarily be removed with their roots from 

 stem to extremity uninjured, the top also might be safely left 

 entire, and the operation would be equivalent to no removal, so 

 far as the growth of the tree is concerned. But the roots of 

 trees usually extend as far, and often farther, than their tops, 

 so that in practice this is entirely out of the question ; it is 

 only in the removal of trees in winter, with heavy balls of 

 earth, that we even partially attain this object. In all ordi- 

 nary cases of removal, excepting those trees which may have 

 uncommonly short, fibrous roots, the larger portion of the spon- 

 gioles, which form the utmost extremities of all the roots, are 

 separated* from the tree, and still others of them are often 

 bruised or dried before the replanting of the tree. In this 

 state of the case, since we can not preserve, we seek a process 

 that will quickly reproduce them ; that process is judicious 

 shortening of both roots and top (Fig. 119 a). In this, as in 

 ordinary pruning, there is doubtless somewhere a precise line 

 of right, an exact limit ; but as we have no immediate and 

 palpable means of discovering this, we endeavor to approach it 

 by proportioning, according to our best judgment, the one to 

 the other. If, in ordinary cases, one third of the root is sacri- 

 ficed in the taking up and shortening, we -shorten or lessen the 

 weight of the top to about the same extent. 



In general, all the roots and all the branches should be op- 

 erated upon, and in shortening the former, the cut should be 

 made with a keen knife on the under side, and sloping outward, 

 so that, when planted, the face of the cut will rest upon the 

 earth, affording a natural position for throwing out its young 

 rootlets. The pruning of the top, also, should be done in a 

 manner to balance the tree and secure an outward growth of 

 the shoots, which will, in the main, be effected by cutting from 

 within outward, just above a bud situated on the under or out- 

 side of the young shoot. 



PREPARING HOLES AND PLANTING. 



In preparing for setting out trees, the holes should be made 

 much larger and deeper than is common. In digging them, let 

 the surface soil be kept by itself; when the subsoil is thrown 



