THE SELECTION OF HOME GROUNDS 1 



lot as much as possible, large rapid-growing trees may 

 be used, at many points, with excellent effect. There is 

 a limit to this transplanting, however, if it be allowable 

 to admit as much in face of various successful removals 

 of very large trees all over the world. Experience has 

 taught men to fix an age and size beyond which it is not 

 wise to move a tree even though previously and lately 

 transplanted and root-pruned. The exact nature of this 

 limit varies almost with every species of tree, and even 

 with different specimens of the same species, where there 

 is a marked difference in vigor of branch growth and 

 multiplicity and freshness of small root fiber. In a gen- 

 eral way, it may be said, however, that the large trees 

 of considerable vigor, like maples and elms, may be moved 

 successfully, especially when they have been root-pruned 

 two or three years before, of the sizes of four to five 

 inches in diameter of stem a foot from the ground, and 

 fifteen to twenty feet high, provided they are healthy 

 and full of sap, and not stunted or in any way decadent. 

 On the other hand, there are trees, like the hickory and 

 pepperidge, that should be set out, after transplanting, of 

 a size not exceeding one or two feet ; and the magnolias 

 and oaks, that grow readily only when moved of the small 

 size of six to eight feet. It is necessary to remember, 

 in order to understand somewhat the anomalous results of 

 transplanting trees, that it is not sufficient to make a tree 

 live, but it must grow, to satisfy us. For this reason, 

 one often sees large trees, which have been transplanted 

 ten years, that have scarcely grown a foot ; although no 

 one can say that it is not possible to move the largest 

 perfectly healthy trees with a practically unlimited 

 expenditure of time and money. In any case, however, 

 it is a good idea to move trees as large as their nature 



