1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



277 



Book, published in 1849, calls it a new varie- 

 ty, and says that it originated in Groton. He 

 gives "Groton" and "Shirley" as synonyms. 

 The following is his description, to which the 

 specimen sent corresponds very well : Large ; 

 flattish-round ; ribbed ; greenish-yellow, most- 

 ly covered with bright red ; stem medial, very 

 deeply sunken ; calyx large, open, in a narrow, 

 very deep basin ; flesh yellowish-white, quite 

 juicy, of a sprightly, sub-acid, aromatic flavor. 

 Aug. and Sept. Moderate grower, good 

 bearer. One of the handsomest and best. 



TBANSPLANTING IN THE UIGHT. 



Occasionally it becomes necessary to trans- 

 plant a valuable tree or shrub while in leaf or 

 blossom, and thus try to save it, or lose it en- 

 tirely. This occurs where a building is to be 

 erected, or a road laid out, or for some other 

 cause. In Cambridge, near Boston, a bank 

 was to be built on the spot where a large and fine 

 pear tree stood. This was removed — but not 

 in the night — and is now a productive tree. 

 The cost of removal, however, was considera- 

 ble. A trench was cut several feet wide and 

 eufliciently deep to go entirely below all the 

 small roots, about which a ball of earth was 

 left and encased in stout planks. To this, 

 sufficient power was applied to slide the whole 

 along on the bottom of the trench, until it 

 came to the spot where it was to remain. 



A gentleman in whose powers of observa- 

 tion the editor of the Working Farmer had 

 confidence, made the following experiments : 



He transplanted ten cherry trees while in blos- 

 som, commencing at four o'clock in the afternoon, 

 and transplanting one each hour, until one in the 

 morning. Those transplanted during daylight 

 shed their blossoms, producing little or no fruit, 

 while those planted during the darker portions 

 maintained their condition fully. He did the 

 same with ten dwarf pear trees alter the fruit was 

 one-thiid grown. Those transplanted during the 

 day shed their fruit; those transplanted during 

 the night perfected their crop and showed no in- 

 jury from having been removed. With each of' 

 those trees he removed some earth with the roots. 



We are well aware that when plants are acciden- 

 tally frozen in green houses it Is customary to ren- 

 der the house dark before applying cold water to 

 thaw them ; and that when this is not observed 

 they are injured, while if entire darkness be se- 

 cured during the operation, manv of them are 

 saved. But the experiment of our friend seems to 

 have but little analogy to this fact and is entirely 

 new to us. 



The effect of night transplanting, we pre- 

 sume, is the prevention of excessive evapora- 

 tion. The leaves of plants take in moisture, 

 and other properties, during the night, and 



give them off in the day time, — and when we 

 consider the vast number of pores or mouths, 

 through which they do this, we shall not think 

 it strange that a tree transplanted when ex- 

 posed to the sun, should wilt and cast its leaves 

 and blossoms. 



In certain plants growing in damp places a 

 square inch of a leaf will have 40,000 pores, 

 while on the same space of a leaf growing 

 among dry rocks, there will be 70,000 pores, 

 or mouths. Then look at the immense super- 

 ficial surface which the leaves of a tree present, 

 and we shall no longer wonder that it would 

 rapidly breathe away its life, unless constant- 

 ly re-supplied by the action of the leaves in 

 the night. It is probable, too, that not only 

 excessive evaporation is prevented by trans- 

 planting in the night, but that the action of the 

 leaves has not been so much disturbed as to 

 prevent the accumulation of moisture and the 

 formation of carbonic acid during the night. 



That the evaporation of which we have 

 spoken does actually take place, there can be 

 no doubt. "We do not indeed see vapor fly- 

 ing oflf from the surface of plants ; neither do 

 we from that of animals, except when the air 

 is so cold as to condense the vapor ; yet we 

 know that in both cases perspiration is perpet- 

 ually going on, and it would appear that in 

 plants it takes place more abundantly than in 

 animals. If a plant covered with leaves is 

 placed under a glass vessel, and exposed to 

 the sun, the sides of the vessel are speedily 

 covered with dew, produced by the condensa- 

 tion of the insensible perspiration of the plant. 

 If the branch of a plant is placed in a bottle of 

 water, and the neck of the bottle is luted to 

 the branch, so that no evaporation can take 

 place, nevertheless the water will disappear ; 

 and this can only happen from its having been 

 abstracted by the branch, which lost it again 

 by insensible perspiration." 



In Lindley's Theory of Horticulture, in 

 which he attempts to explain the principal op- 

 erations of cultivating plants upon physiolo- 

 gical principles, the reader may find many ex- 

 ceedingly interesting and instructive facts re- 

 lating to the garden and the farm. 



— English dairymen object to the establishment 

 of cheese factories on the ground that they will 

 deprive their wives and daughters of an honorable 

 and healthy employment, and by relieving them 

 from labor lead to idleness and extravagance. 



