TRANSPLANTING 



Furman Lloyd Mulford 



A S the frost gets out of the ground impatience to be- 

 ^ gin digging takes possession of the soul. Although it 

 is a most appropriate time to be planning how and where 

 the transplantin},' is to be done it is a time to leave the soi! 

 alone until such time as it is sufficiently dry to handle 

 without danger of puddling. As light sandy soils are 

 never troubled in this way the caution suggested above 

 does not hold for them. 



The condition of the soil is of prime importance in 

 considering the mechanical operation of moving a grow- 

 ing plant from one location and re-establishing it in 

 another under such conditions that it may reasonably 

 be expected to continue its growth. One of the chief 

 reasons why the transplanting of deciduous trees and 

 shrubs is done spring and fall and not all through the 

 winter is primarily that it is too much trouble to have 

 the ground in suitable condition in the intervening 

 months. It is just as possible to transplant a tree in 

 January, in New York or New England, in a manner 

 so that it will live, as it is to do it in October or April, 

 but it takes more fore-thought, trouble and expense. 



To be suitable for transplanting a soil should be suf- 

 ficiently dry so that when squeezed tightly in the hand 

 and then released it gradually springs apart. The reason 

 for this is that if the soil is too wet and it is packed 

 about the roots of the plant it puddles. That is it packs 

 together in an impervious mass that will permit neither 

 water nor air to reach the roots nor permit the roots to 

 continue their growth. The action on the soil about the 

 roots is similar to that on wet clay when it is pounded 

 into place on the face of a dam. It is a common prac- 

 tice to wet the soil containing a large proportion of clay 

 and pound it on surfaces intended to hold water and thus 

 make the soil impervious. If the soil packed about 

 the roots of plants is too wet it acts in the same manner, 

 as though tamped on the surface of a dam. How soon 

 after a rain or after the ground thaws in the spring 

 it will be suitable for handling, depends on the partic- 

 ular soil as the rapidity with which soils dry depends 

 on the relative amounts of clay and sand they contain 

 combined with the amount of organic matter and the 

 freedom with which the subsoil permits excess of water 

 to escape. Some sandy soils never get too wet to handle 



I\ TR.\.MSPLANTING STREET IKtKS C.AkEl-UL I'L.ACHMENT AND FILLING OF THE Hwi.i-. i> Mu r..>SAKN 



I he iilaiitcr and two diggers are setting the tree while the wagon of trees waits to go to the next hole. The planter shakes 

 the tree up and down occasionally, also works soil among the roots with his fingers. When the hole is partially filled he begins 

 tu tramp the soil. 



