No. 10. 



Transplanting Trees. 



309 



Transplanting Trees. 



Wb have at various times suggested to our readers 

 the importance of the cultivation of fruit. VVe have 

 also not been backvi'ard in hinting that a tree of good 

 fruit occupied no more space in an orchard or a gar 

 den, than a worthless one. We now take the oppor 

 tunity to say, that to select good fruit trees from the 

 nursery, is not all that is essential. Careful planting 

 is of great importance, as will appear from the follow- 

 ing remarks taken from Dawning's excellent work on 

 the Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, a work which 

 comes at $1 50, which we have constantly for sale, and 

 which, we think, every farmer will gain by possessing 

 himself of. It contains abundance of valuable practi 

 cal information. And further— there is a great deal to 

 do after an orchard is planted : we mean in taking 

 care to protect it from the cattle, sheep, and hogs. The 

 editor remembers once hearing a nurseryman remark 

 that he believed nearly one half the trees sold and 

 planted were destroyed by the cattle, &.c , and in other 

 ways, for want of care. Why should this be ? Surely 

 a tree that is worth buying, and the labour of plant 

 ing, is worth subsequent protection.— Ed. 



As nearly all fruit trees are raised first in 

 nurseries, and then removed to their final 

 position in the orchard or fruit garden; as 

 upon the manner of this removal depends 

 not only their slow or rapid growth, their 

 feebleness or vigor afterwards, and in many 

 cases even their life, it is evident that it is 

 in the highest degree important to under- 

 stand and practise well this transplanting. 



The season best adapted for transplanting 

 fruit trees is a matter open to much diflfer- 

 ence of opinion among horticulturists; a 

 difference founded mainly on experience, 

 but without taking into account variation of 

 climate and soils, two very important cir- 

 cumstances in all operations of this kind. 



All physiologists, however, agree that the 

 best season for transplanting deciduous trees 

 is in autumn, directly after the fall of the 

 leaf. The tree is then in a completely dor- 

 mant state. Transplanted at this early sea- 

 son, whatever wounds may have been made 

 in the roots commence healing at once, as a 

 deposit directly takes place of granulous 

 matter from the wound, and when the spring 

 arrives the tree is already somewhat estab- 

 lished, f^nd ready to commence its growth. 

 Autumn planting is for this reason greatly 

 to be preferred in all mild climates and dry 

 soils ; and even for very hardy trees as the 

 apple, in colder latitudes ; as the fixed posi- 

 tion in the ground, which trees planted then 

 get by the autumnal and early spring rains, 

 gives them an advantage, at the next season 

 f)f growth, over newly moved trees. 



On the other hand, in the northern por- 

 tions of the Union, where the winters com- 

 mence early, and are severe, spring planting 

 is greatly preferred. There autumn and 



winter are not mild enough to allow this 

 gradual process of healing and establishing 

 the roots to go on ; for when the ground is 

 frozen to the depth of the roots of a tree, all 

 that slow growth and collection of nutriment 

 by the roots is necessarily at an end. And 

 the more tender sorts of fruit trees, the 

 Peach and Apricot, which are less hardy 

 when newly planted than when their roots 

 are entire, and well fixed in the soil, are 

 liable to injury in their branches by the cold. 

 The proper time in such a climate, is as 

 early as the ground is in a fit condition in 

 the spring. 



Early in autumn, and in spring before the 

 buds expand, may as a general rule, be con- 

 sidered the best seasons for transplanting. 

 It is true that there are instances of excel- 

 lent success in planting at all seasons, except 

 midsummer; and there are many who, from 

 having been once or twice successful in 

 transplanting when trees were nearly in 

 leaf, avow that to be the best season ; not 

 taking into account, that their success was 

 probably entirely owing to a fortunately 

 damp state of the atmosphere at the time, 

 and abundant rains after the experiment 

 was performed. In the middle States, we 

 are frequently liable to a dry period in early 

 summer, directly following the season of re- 

 moval, and if transplanting is deferred to a 

 late period in spring, many of the trees will 

 perish from drought, before their roots be- 

 come established in the soil. Spring plant- 

 ing should, therefore, always be performed 

 as soon as possible, that the roots may have 

 the great benefit of the early and abundant 

 rains of that season, and get well started be- 

 fore the heat of summer commences. For 

 the neighbourhood of New York, therefore, 

 the best periods are, from the fall of the leaf 

 to the middle of November, in autumn ; and 

 from the close of winter to the middle of 

 April, in the spring; though commonly, the 

 seasons 'of removal are frequently extended 

 a month beyond these limits. 



Taking up the trees is an important part 

 of the operation. A transplanter should 

 never forget that it is by the delicate and 

 tender points or extremities of the root that 

 trees take up their food; and that the chance 

 of complete success is lessened, by everyone 

 of these points that is bruised or destroyed. 

 If we could remove trees with every fibre 

 entire, as we do a plant in a pot, they would 

 scarcely show any sign of their change of 

 position. In most cases, especially in that 

 of trees taken from nurseries, this is, by the 

 operation of removal, nearly impossible. But 

 although we may not hope to get every root 

 entire, we may, with proper care, preserve 

 by far the larger portion of them, and more 



