CHAPTER III. 



TRANSPLANTING TREES HOW, WHEN; PACKING, CARE OF WHETf 



RECEIVED ; PRUNING TIME WHEN, HOW ; THE TOPS, THE ROOTS ; 

 LABELS FOR ; PROTECTION FROM SHEEP, RABBITS, ETC. ; TRAIN- 

 ING ; FORM OF YOUNG TREES. 



THE first care in the removal of trees, should be not to destroy the 

 roots in digging. Small trees are less liable to injury from such 

 cause than large ones, but too often have we seen them wrenched out 

 of the ground, by the strong arm of man, apparently not to injury 

 of roots, but really they were cracked through every portion, and 

 all the tissues through which the circulation of sap is had, broken and 

 injured, often more to injury of tree, than if one-half the roots had 

 been cut off. Again, have we seen trees cut out with spades, leaving 

 only about four to six inches of main root, and a few small fibres. 

 Such trees require a whole year's nursing, with severe shortening-in 

 of limbs, to recover anything like their native vigor, and are not 

 worth, to the planter, over one-half as much as trees well and care- 

 fully dug, with roots nearly entire. 



Preparing the soil. If an orchard is to be planted, on soil reten 

 tive of moisture, or, in other words level clayey soil it should first 

 be thoroughly subsoiled, at least twenty-two inches deep ; it should 

 then have sufficient number of under-drains, so that no surplus water 

 would ever remain on it over forty-eight hours. Digging deep holes 

 should never be practiced, but the whole soil should be made of fine 

 tilth, and if the ground is well-drained, or naturally dry, dig broad 

 spaces, four feet diameter, and one foot deep. If the ground is not 

 drained, and naturally wet a location and condition which should 

 never be adopted let the planting be made by placing the tree on the 

 level ground, and earthing up around it. Upon the level prairies this 

 course has been found most successful, and at times, without even 

 removing the sod beneath the tree. 



Many suppose, that a tree grown in the nursery on sandy soil, will 

 not succeed on clay, and so the reverse ; this, if they will only use 

 reason, and study the nutritive process in the tree, they will see, at 

 once, has no foundation in fact ; but a tree taken from the rich ground 

 of a well-kept nursery, and placed in a barren, half-starved soil, 

 amid grass and weeds, has no more chance of continuing in vigor and 

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