674 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Autumn and midwinter are, moreover, the best 

 eeasons, because of tiieir great dampness. It will 

 be seen by reference to Mr. Tiiompson's tables, 

 that the air is very generally in a state ol satura- 

 tion in the months ol October, November, Decem- 

 ber, January, and February, and that it is seldom 

 in that condition at any other season. Now, 

 alihough the perspiration of plants is grea'ly di- 

 minished by the removal of the leaves, it is not 

 destroyed, for they also perspire through their 

 young bark ; and therefore a saturated almo- 

 ephej-e, which prevents much of the perspiraiory 

 action which remains from beujg exercised, is a 

 condition, even when plants are leaflets, much lOo 

 beneficial to be overlooked. Nor is the action 

 upon the perspiratory power of the stem the only 

 mode in which a saturated atmosphere is import- 

 ant at the time of transplantation ; it exercises a 

 directly favorable influence on ihe roots them- 

 selves. Roots, at their spongioles, or most absorb- 

 ent points, are extremely delicate parts, unpro- 

 tected by a fully organized epidermi?, destined to 

 exist in a moist medium, and capable ol' being 

 easily killed by exposure to dryness as well as by 

 actual violence. The accidents to which the 

 roots of transplanted trees are liable, from the 

 very nature of the operation, are of such a kind 

 that it is impossible to prevent their being exposed 

 to the air, sometimes lor considerable periods of 

 time ; it is therefore obviously a point ol' the first 

 importaace, that the air should be as nearly of the 

 humidity of' the soil from which the roots have 

 been extracted as can be secured. How unfavora- 

 ble, in this point of view, the months of March, 

 April, and May are for planting, is apparent from 

 Mr. Thompson's tables above referred to; how 

 little the matter is attended to by nurserymen, gar- 

 deners, and laborers, all great planters know to 

 their cost. Mr. Mucnab, Vvfho thoroughly under- 

 Btandsall this, prelersa moist rainy day ; alihough, 

 as he says, he has " at times been as wet in plant- 

 ing evergreens, as when exposed for hours on the 

 windy side of Ben Nevis in a wet day, without 

 great coat and with a broken umbrella." It may 

 be very true that gpod plantations have been made 

 in March and April ; it may be equally true that 

 no such care as I have described is necessary for 

 all plants ; but no vvise man would, on that ac- 

 count, neglect the precautions which the nature of 

 plants shows to be necess;jry to insure success 

 with all things. Very wet and late springs may 

 prevent the loss of any considerable proportion of 

 the trees planted in March and April, especially 

 if succeeded by a dull, warm, wet summer ; and 

 a willow may be planted with success at midsum- 

 mer : but we cannot tell beforehand what sort of 

 spring is coming, and all plants have not the 

 tenacity of life possessed by a wflow. 



If the months of November and December are 

 the most favorable for transplan'ing deciduous 

 trees, and March and April the worst, how much 

 more important must be those periods to ever- 

 greens. An evergreen differs from a deciduous 

 plant in this material circumstance, that it has no 

 season of rest ; its leaves remain alive and active 

 during the winter, and consequently it is in a slate 

 of perpetual groivlh. I do not mean that it is al- 

 ways lengthening itself in the form of new branch- 

 es, for this happens periodically only in evergreens, 

 and is usually confined to the spring ; but that its 

 circulation, perspiration, assimilation, and produc- j 



tion of roots are incessant. Such being the case, 

 an evergreen, when transplanted, is liable to the 

 same risks as deciduous phmis in full leaf, with 

 one essential dillerence. The leaves of evergreens 

 are provided with a thick hard epidermis which is 

 tender and readily permeable to aqueous exhala- 

 tions only when quite young, and which becomes 

 very firm and tough by the arrival of winter, 

 whence the rigidity always observable in the foli- 

 age of evergreen trees and shrubs. Such a coat- 

 ing as this is capable, in a much less degree than 

 one ol a thinner texture, such as we find upon 

 deciduous plants, of parting with aqueous vapor; 

 and moreover its stornates are lew, small, com- 

 paratively inactive, and chiefly confined to the 

 under side, where they are less exposed to dryness 

 than if they were on the upper side also. But 

 although evergreens, from their structure, are not 

 liable to be ?flected by the same external circum- 

 stances as deciduous plants, in the same degree ; 

 and although, iherelbre, transplanting an ever- 

 green in leal is not the same thing as transplant- 

 ing a deciduous tree in the same condition, yet it 

 must be obvious that the great extent of perspir- 

 ing surlace upon the one, however low its action, 

 constitutes much difficuliy, superadded to whate- 

 ver difficulty there nuiy be in the other case. 

 Hence we are irresistibly driven lo the conclusion, 

 •that whatever care is required in the selecti-on of a 

 suitable season, damp, and not too cold, lor a deci- 

 duous tree, is still more essential for an evergreen. 

 It is, therefore, most extraordinary that it should 

 have ever been the practice to deler the planting 

 evergreens till late in the spring, upon the supposi- 

 tion that it is the very best season lor ihem, and 

 that midsummer even is a proper period ; tis if 

 cold winds, accompained by Irom 20° to 30'' of 

 dryness in the air, which is not more than '500 or 

 •357 of moisture, with a bright sun beating on the 

 roots which are exposed, and exciting the action 

 of the perspiring surface to the utmost extent of 

 its power, were external condiiions with which 

 the gardener has no concern: and yet, as Mr. 

 Macnab justly observes, half a day's sun in spring 

 and autumn will do more harm immediately after 

 planting, than a whole week's sun from morning 

 10 night in the middle of winter. 



The holly, says a writer in ihe Horticultural 

 Transactions, does not succeed well, if transplant- 

 ed ai any other season ol the year than the end 

 of April or beizinning of May ; at this time the 

 buds are just breaking open into leaf, and I have 

 rarely failed of success in transplanting small, or 

 even very large old trees, (ii. 357). Although 

 such statements cannot be too strongly contradict- 

 ed as guides to practice, yet it is not difficult to 

 explain their origin. As evergreens are never 

 deprived of their leaves, so ihey are never incapa- 

 ble of lorming roots ; on the contrary, they pro- 

 duce them abundantly all winter long, and rapidly 

 at any other period of the >ear which is favora- 

 ble to their growth : so that they are capable of 

 making good an injury lo their roots much more 

 speedily ilian deciduous plants ; especially as in 

 thamajority of cases the roots are numerous and 

 fibrous, and not sohable 'o extensive mutilation 

 when transplanted. Now, if an evergreen is 

 planted in the month of May, and the weather 

 happens to be cloudy, mild, and damp, as the plant 

 is jusf then commencing the renewal ol its growth, 

 and is forming fresh roots abundantly, if such a 



